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New charges have been hurled at Gyunay Sefer (R) and Mithat Tabakov (L) from the ethnic Turkish DPS. Photo by BGNES
Two members of parliament from the ethnic Turkish party have been charged with illegally earning more than a million and a half levs that was supposed to pay off building public facilities.
Prosecutors say companies, linked to Gyunay Sefer, pocketed more than BGN 1.6 M from the state budget under five contracts for road repairs and the construction of two market places and a water treatment plant.
In committing the crime, defined by the prosecutors as document frauds and abuse of office, Sefer was assisted by Mithat Tabakov, a mayor of the town of Dulovo at that time.
The news comes two days after Bulgaria's senior prosecutor demanded that two members of parliament from the ethnic Turkish party be stripped of immunity and prosecuted on new charges.
Gyunay Sefer and Mithat Tabakov were elected MPs during the latest parliamentary elections in the summer of 2009 on the ticket of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) in the town of Silistra.
Earlier this month Sofia City Court sentenced Mithat Tabakov to four years in prison for accepting an exceptionally large bribe.
Tabakov, in his capacity of mayor of the Dulovo municipality, was charged with accepting a sum of BGN 10 000 from the manager of Water Supply and Sewerage OOD in Silistra, Petko Gorbanov, in the period October 2004 – November 19, 2004.
Tabakov received the money on November 19, 2004 on his own bank account to sign a contract with the Water Supply and Sewerage company in the northeastern town of Silistra for the implementation of public procurement for water piping replacement and inspection in the village of Vokil.
Tabakov claimed that he had not been transferred a bribe but a loan to repair his car.
This is the second trial against the DPS MP.
In December 2011, the Sofia City Court sentenced Tabakov to five years of imprisonment over signing a damaging deal.
He was found guilty of criminal breach of trust by signing an unfavorable contract in his capacity of Mayor of the Municipality of Dulovo in 2009.
Tabakov is appealing the decision.
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