The Sofia City Court has revoked the order to forcefully summon Bulgarian ethnic Turkish politician Ahmed Dogan to the courtroom as a witness in the case against his attacker.

The said attacker, Oktay Enimehmedov has been charged with attempted murder. According to the indictment, he tried three times to shoot a gas pistol at Ahmed Dogan, Honorary Chairman of the predominantly ethnic Turkish party Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) party, but the weapon misfired.

The first sitting in the trial had to be postponed as Dogan failed to appear before the magistrates.

The forceful summon has been revoked after the DPS Honorary Chairman presented a doctor's note asserting he suffered an illness and the judges' panel decided that this is a sound excuse for the failure to appear.

Enimehmedov, who is currently in custody, may get a life sentence for the offence.

Apart from that, he has also been charged with disrespectful conduct and breach of public order for interrupting Dogan's speech, for which he faces a penalty of up to 5 years in prison.

Parallel to the trial against Enimehmedov, an investigation is underway into claims of use of excessive force by the delegates at the DPS conference in the attempt to neutralize the attacker.

On January 19, 2013, Bulgarian police detained Enimehmedov after he pointed a gun at Dogan, then leader of the opposition DPS as he was delivering a speech at the party conference in the capital Sofia. No shots were fired.

Enimehmedov was heavily beaten by DPS delegates after the attack.

The young ethnic Turk stated that he had not actually intended to kill Dogan, but to scare him. The gun was established to have been a gas pistol.

He was initially expected to only face grave hooliganism charges.

However, experts told the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office that gas pistol shots could kill if fired at a range closer than one centimeter from the temple, mouth or eyes.

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