Sofia prosecutors lay fraud charges against two MPs from Dogan’s party
The Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office has lodged at Sofia City fraud charges against two MPs for the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, Mithat Tabakov and Gyunay Sefer.
Tabakov, formerly mayor of Dulovo in north-eastern Bulgaria, and Sefer, a company manager, are both charged with document fraud while Tabakov also is accused of abuse of power.
The allegations arise from transactions in May 2005 in which Sefer, as manager and representative of the company Bulmex, received 90 609 leva (about 45 304 euro) from state company Public Investment Projects. Prosecutors said that Sefer’s intention was embezzlement. The sum was for a road repair project that was never carried out.
Tabakov and Sefer are alleged by prosecutors to have falsified documents while Tabakov was mayor of Dulovo.
In 2012, prosecutors filed charges against the two in connection with 1.6 million leva public money received by Sefer’s companies in terms of five separate contracts, for road repairs, the building of two marketplaces and a water treatment plant.
Tabakov and Sefer were elected to Parliament in July 2009 on the ticket of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, the party of which former long-time leader Ahmed Dogan is now honorary president.
Tabakov was convicted in October 2012 in Sofia City Court of accepting a 10 000 leva bribe from a Silistra water company in 2004, while mayor of Dulovo. He was sentenced to four years in jail. Tabakov, who is appealing against the court’s finding, said that the sum was not a bribe but a loan to repair his car.
The previous year, 2011, he was sentenced to five years in jail for criminal breach of trust for a contract he had signed in 2009, while mayor.
(Photo: Jason Morrison/sxc.hu)
