The caretaker cabinet can make all necessary efforts to realize the expectations of the vast majority of Bulgarians for normally conducted, law-abiding elections. This is an undisputed priority and we all expect the necessary efforts to be made in this direction. This was commented on the program “Live Day” on NOVA NEWS by the criminal law lecturer at the Sofia University, Prof. Plamen Panayotov, in response to a question about what the caretaker cabinet “Gyurov” can and cannot achieve?
Regarding the election of a new prosecutor general, he expressed the opinion that it is unlikely that anything special will come of the discussion initiated by the Minister of Justice in the Supreme Judicial Council. “Both chambers in the Supreme Judicial Council - the prosecutorial and the judicial chambers - already have a clearly expressed practice on these issues. The prosecutorial chamber elected acting Chief Prosecutor Borislav Sarafov. The SJC Judicial College, in turn, appointed an acting President of the Supreme Administrative Court. So both colleges have a very clear position on who is the competent authority and I do not expect this position to change, even during a discussion within the SJC Plenum", he explained.
Panayotov specified that "the decision, which in a sense guarantees the lack of permanence and security in the governing bodies of the higher magistracies in Bulgaria, is not good in itself and is not something that should be encouraged".
According to the professor of criminal law at the Sofia University, the great vice actually stems from the lack of the necessary will in the first institution of the state - the parliament. "The National Assembly, with the necessary qualified majority, must cast its new quota in the Supreme Judicial Council. Then the newly formed Supreme Judicial Council must to start with the election of a Prosecutor General for a full term, with the election of a Chairman of the Supreme Administrative Court for a full term and in a few years - with the election of a new Chairman of the Supreme Court of Cassation. This is the way to resolve such a constitutional crisis", he is categorical.
Panayotov also commented on the question of whether a criminal judge, such as the new Minister of the Interior Emil Dechev, will be able to unravel the "Petrohan-Okolchitsa" case. According to him, it is good for the Minister of the Interior to have an overview of the Ministry of the Interior system, but it is not his job to carry out the investigation and supervision over it, nor to assess whether to file an indictment, against whom and for what crime.
"According to the Criminal Procedure Code, the investigation is entrusted to the investigative bodies, and the supervision of their work is assigned to the prosecutor's office. In this sense, the prosecutor's office is leading in the implementation of procedural and investigative actions. So the Minister of Internal Affairs does not have a direct opportunity to intervene in the course of a specific investigation, including in such a tragic case as “Petrohan”, the lecturer is categorical.
Prof. Panayotov was categorical that “this case, although it represents a huge tragedy - the violent death of six people, including a child, should not be used as political “chewing gum“ and become the main subject of political clashes at a time when society expects completely different solutions from political entities”.