Ahmed Emin, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) official who in 2008 was found dead of a gunshot wound in a house owned by MRF leader Ahmed Dogan, had been given the task of destroying Dogan, MRF member Kamen Kostadinov told Bulgarian television station bTV on February 25 2010.

According to Kostadinov, Emin used to be a secret agent with the communist-era secret services and as such had the task to gather information about Dogan, given that he was in his close circle of associates in the party. Emin was found dead in Dogan's home in the room next to the one Dogan was staying in at the time.

Emin's past became clear to the party after he died in 2008. According to Kostadinov, Emin allegedly had meetings with Alexei Petrov, who is currently in custody and is being prosecuted for being involved in an organised crime group linked to money laundering, racketeering, and tax evasion, among other crimes. Petrov is a former official of the State Agency for National Security and has also served as high ranking officer for the communist secret services State Security.

"We don't have evidence if such meetings between Emin and Petrov were held, but we do have information that this had happened," Kostadinov said.

He said that the MRF had conducted its own parallel investigation into the death of Emin which authorities already had described as a suicide.

"It is normal for us to conduct our own investigation as I saw the lack of motivation by authorities at the time to dig into the case," Kostadinov said. This parallel investigation included speaking to people who had been close to Emin.

Kostadinov talked about Emin's phone book, which allegedly contained interesting information about his contacts and meetings.

"It was pretty clear to everyone at the time that this phone book was found right after Emin was found dead. I personally knew about it a few hours after the incident and that's why it was very strange why authorities only went public about it three days later," he said.

"For three days the public did not know about tis existence which makes one allege that something was being fixed or covered up in this period," Kostadinov said.

Emin's death, which raised a lot of questions about the MRF, Dogan and how the party functioned, was brought back to to the public's attention on February 24 2010 by Prime Minister Boiko Borissov.

Borissov has sent documentation, including files from an investigation by the State Agency for National Security, to Prosecutor-General Boris Velchev, after saying that he was "convinced" that at the time of the probe into Emin’s death, the Interior Ministry and prosecutors had made serious mistakes or "at least were negligent".

Borissov said that while he did not want to interfere in the work of prosecutors, he believed that the matter should be reviewed.

"As a policeman (Borissov previously was with the Interior Ministry and was for some time its chief secretary) I am very puzzled by the way this investigation was conducted. Highly puzzled," Borissov said.

There seemed to have been a "lack of interest," he said. Media speculations suggest that the issue with Emin's death has surfaced now as part of the investigation against Petrov and the contacts he has had with public and other officials over the years.

The official investigation into the death of Emin was officially closed on April 14 2009.

At the time, Bulgarian-language Dnevnik daily quoted prosecutor Alexander Nalbantov as saying that the investigation had not established the reason why Emin, an MRF official and father of two, had decided to end his life. Emin used his legally-owned firearm to commit suicide, while MRF leader Dogan was in the room next door.

A total of 85 people were questioned in relation to the incident.

Prosecutors concluded that there was no evidence suggesting that someone had forced Emin to end his life, notwithstanding speculation and allegations by former MRF members.

Emin's motive to end his life was a personal, not professional one, Nalbantov said.