Sofia's city prosecutor's office started an investigation against the Minister of Environment and Water Affairs Djevdet Chakurov for alleged abuse of power, Bulgarian daily Dnevnik said.

The investigation was started after a tip-off from Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria in late 2007, Re:TV would announced in the evening of July 25, according to Dnevnik.

Source of the information was said to have been the monitoring prosecutor Kalin Sofiyanski. Chakurov was said to be investigated over the case of Dundee Precious Metals. The Canadian firm has waited two years for approval of Dundee's environmental impact assessment (EIA) from the Ministry of Environment and Water Affairs (MOEW).

The Supreme Administrative Court has ruled twice that MOEW has to decide on whether or not it will issue an EIA.

According to Dnevnik, the tip-off had been filed by members of Parliament Evdokia Maneva and Eliana Masseva in late 2007. In April 2008 the details had been forwarded to the office of the city prosecutor. In the following two months, the Sate Agency for National Security (SANS) had conducted an investigation, Dnevnik said.

According to Dnevik, it was still unclear if Chakurov would be held criminally liable.

Prosecutors were currently waiting for several transcripts from hearings of the National Assembly and additional material from the Ministry of Economy and Energy, Sofiyanski said.

The documents were related to te negotiations of the concession deal between Chelopech Mining and the Bulgarian government. As reported earlier by The Sofia Echo, on April 27 2008, Dundee announced the company's intentions to sue Chakurov in a Dutch arbitrage court if he would not issue permission to the firm to carry out its activities in the country without state participation.