"We have been staring at the position of the acting Prosecutor General. Because the members of parliament wrote the draft law on their knees, they adopted it quickly, here is the result - the judges interpret it one way, the prosecutors another". This is how constitutionalist Prof. Plamen Kirov interprets the case with the mandates of the acting Prosecutor General and the chairmen of the supreme courts in the program "Face to Face".
Earlier this week, Justice Minister Georgi Georgiev announced that he is convening the Plenum of the Supreme Judicial Council next Thursday. Then the point about the texts of the Law on the Judiciary related to the mandates of the acting Prosecutor General and the chairmen of the supreme courts will be considered.
According to Kirov, after the 6-month period has expired, the parliament has not even tried to start the procedure to select this quota. "They did not try to see if they could even elect a new Supreme Judicial Council", he added.
No one has asked to activate the procedure for selecting a parliamentary quota, the expert says.
"We are a country of expired mandates", Kirov said.
For the professor, we do not have a constitutional crisis. "We have problems with the functioning of the institutions in the judiciary, but they must be resolved because the situation is intolerable", according to the professor.
"Do prosecutors in the country receive their salaries - they do. And who signs the salaries - Sarafov. So there is an acting prosecutor general", Plamen Kirov also said.
"The issue with the expired mandate with the judiciary inspectorate is similar - again, no selection procedure has been launched. There is a decision of the Constitutional Court that says - yes, the mandate has expired, but we continue to perform our functions because we cannot close the state. The tasks assigned by the inspectorate cannot be not performed. At the very least, declarations of property and interests of all magistrates in the country are checked there," explained the professor of Constitutional Law.
"There is a decision by two specific panels of the Supreme Court of Cassation on requests by the acting Prosecutor General to reopen criminal cases. And they say that within the framework of these proceedings on the request - we doubt that we have an incompetent body that made the request and we do not allow the consideration of this request. I have not heard that there is a procedure before the Criminal Chamber, because if there is such a procedure, people from practice - lawyers, prosecutors - must be heard. I don't see such a procedure being started, i.e. there can be no decision by the criminal panel of the Supreme Procedural Court," Kirov believes.
According to him, it happens that the opinion of the judges is against the opinion of the prosecutors.
"The Union of Judges is most officially addressing Sarafov with "Resign as a prosecutor". Let them understand if Sarafov is nobody, why would you ask him to resign. Let them understand", the professor invites.
"I don't follow the judiciary, I know people there. Half of them were my students. There are brilliant lawyers, it's very bad for there to be wars between judges and prosecutors. What is the reason - the parliament adopts some laws, they don't keep an eye on things. They are trying to consolidate some kind of status quo and leave the magistrates to fight among themselves," he added.
It is the duty of the National Assembly to elect a composition of the Supreme Judicial Council, the constitutionalist believes.
"As far as I understand from the words of the Minister of Justice - an attempt was made in the National Assembly, but a majority was not gathered. It is obvious that we need to get out of this situation," he added.