The leader of Bulgaria's ethnic Turk party, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), Ahmed Dogan, has been the target of attempted assassination on several occasions in the past and his life is under threat more than ever, with the impending danger of a current contract on his head, a former top aide to Dogan, Mohamed Redjep, told private broadcaster bTV on November 25.

Redjep, who was the head of Dogan's political cabinet until 2001, was succeeded in the job by Ahmed Emin, who committed suicide in MRF's Sofia headquarters, which also serves as Dogan's home, in mysterious circumstances.

Redjep, however, said it was unlikely that Ahmed contemplated killing Dogan and then turning the gun on himself.

He called for immediate amendment in the legislation regulating the operations Bulgaria secret services. Currently former members of the secret services are allowed and in some cases obliged to disclose sensitive information to the public regarding some of their past activities in their corresponding units, and according to Redjeb this practice has got to end.

Rather controversially however, he goes on to demand that, "the secret services must release information regarding the identity of those who previously attempted taking the life of Mr Dogan. The State Agency for National Security must once and for all come out clean and state whether there is a current threat against Dogan, as they have that information," Redjep said earlier, in an interview to 24 Chassa daily, published on November 20.