Petition to Sue Dogan Attacker Thrashers Filed with Bulgarian Prosecutor

Bulgarian Chief Prosecutor, Sotir Tsatsarov, is getting Tuesday a petition with 10 000 signatures demanding legal proceedings against the people thrashing the man who attacked ethnic Turkish leader Ahmed Dogan.

On January 19, police in Bulgaria detained a man after he pointed a gun at Ahmed Dogan, leader of the opposition ethnic Turkish party Movement for Rights and Freedoms as he was delivering a speech at the party conference in the capital Sofia. No shots were fired.

The man was identified as Oktay Enimehmedov, a 25-year-old ethnic Turkish resident of the city of Burgas, with a previous criminal record for assault and theft.

In the aftermath, thousands of Bulgarians united in outrage from live footage showing DPS delegates hitting with fists and kicking the young man, trying to pull his pants down and shouting "kill him," and "beat him." The footage also made international headlines.

The Facebook group demands for them to be legally prosecuted and fairly punished and have launched the said petition.

Protests against the beating were organized in several major Bulgarian cities last Saturday, but the turnout was low.

Enimehmedov says he did not actually want to kill Dogan, but to scare him. The gun was established to have been a gas pistol, which cannot.

Enimehmedov is charged with grave hooliganism and death threat. Two instances of Sofia's Courts ruled to keep him under permanent detention.

Bulgaria's Consultative Council for National Security is convening Tuesday to discuss the attack against Dogan.