Recently resigned deputy interior minister Raif Moustafa, who is accused of offering a 100 000 leva bribe to another public official, was more than just a middleman in the corrupt scheme, Sofia prosecutor Nikolai Kokinov told a June 23 2009 news conference.

Moustafa resigned on June 16 2009, two days after the head of the Agriculture Ministry's Executive Agency Fisheries and Aquacultures, Marin Dimitrov, refused a 100 000 leva bribe, after private terrestrial broadcaster bTV said Moustafa had allegedly tried to pressure Dimitrov into accepting the bribe.

Dimitrov was offered the bribe by Rossen Marinov, co-owner of Auto Engineering company, who was arrested on June 11 in a joint raid by prosecutors and the State Agency for National Security.

According to Kokinov, Moustafa had approached Dimitrov and promised him a down payment of 50 000 leva. Later, Marinov himself offered another 50 000 leva to Dimitrov.

Kokinov said that the indictment against both Moustafa and Marinov will be ready within two weeks.

Marinov is currently under house arrest while Moustafa was freed on 10 000 leva bail.

If proven guilty, both could face up to 10 years' imprisonment and be fined 15 000 leva.

Moustafa was appointed deputy interior minister from the quota of one of the three ruling parties, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms. After he resigned, he asked for his name to be removed from the party's elections ticket ahead of the July 5 2009 elections for Parliament.

"Regardless of my certainty that I am innocent, I have resigned as deputy minister and I am asking the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) not to include my name in its elections list," Moustafa said in his resignation statement on June 14.