No Assassination Attempt against Dogan, Technically, Bulgarian Prosecutor Says

The failed assassination of Bulgarian ethnic Turkish leader Ahmed Dogan on Saturday cannot be deemed an attempt on Dogan's life because of the gas handgun used by the attacker, Bulgaria's Deputy Chief Prosecutor Borislav Sarafov said Monday.

Ahmed Dogan, founder and leader of the DPS party ("Movement for Rights and Freedoms"), was the target of an attack right on the floor of a party conference on Saturday by 25-year-old Oktay Enimehmedov, also a Bulgarian citizen from ethnic Turkish origin. However, the gas pistol that Enimehmedov pointed at Dogan's head misfired.

"With this gun one cannot kill a person. With these bullets one can't kill a person either," Bulgaria's Deputy Chief Prosecutor Borislav Sarafov explained Monday.

In his words, the prosecutor keep interrogating Enimehmedov but the failed assassin has been using his right to remain silent.

Sarafov added that Enimehmedov has not been put to a polygraph test, and whatever information the prosecutors have about him came from the psychologists of the Interior Ministry which had no legal value.