We have been very closely monitoring what is happening in Parliament and in particular the changes that were taking place in the Law on the Judiciary, which regulates some very important things for the system. This bill provides that the procedures that have been started for the election of any of the three big ones, for which no presidential decree has been issued at the time of the announcement of this decree in the State Gazette, are terminated. At the same time, it is common practice for the law to enter into force from the date of its promulgation. This was stated by Boyan Magdalinchev, representing the Supreme Judicial Council, in the program “More from the Day” on BNT.
“We discussed the possibility and decided that it would be better to postpone the hearing of the candidate for Prosecutor General and to vote, and after it is published in the State Gazette and the law enters into force, then to make the final decision. This law has several new things – the SJC cannot vote and propose to the president for appointment or dismissal the chairman of the SJC, the SAC and the Prosecutor General with an expired mandate, members with an expired mandate cannot vote. This is unconstitutional. It contradicts a decision of the Constitutional Court, which was considering the case of the Inspectorate to the SJC, which has a third expired mandate. The SJC does not have the authority to refer the Constitutional Court”, he explained.
It is better to refer the Constitutional Court, because we have violations of the Constitution in Art. 130, p. Ah, Magdalinchev thinks.
"These changes that were adopted yesterday with the law amending and supplementing the Judiciary Act practically allow them to perform these functions again for a period of 6 months. In other words, they repeat what we have said", he specified.
The representative of the Supreme Judicial Council also said that he was curious about the “Eight Dwarfs” case. “Is it true or not, whether he has connections and whether he visited or not, if so - why? He claims that he had a meeting at the request of Ivan Geshev. How true it is - I don't know. The ad hoc prosecutor must answer. This body was created specifically. This is a judge sent by the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Judicial Council to investigate crimes or signals of crimes committed by the Prosecutor General”.
When asked whether Mr. Sarafov meets the criteria to perform the functions of Prosecutor General, Boyan Magdalinchev explained that “this is the authority of the Ethics Commission of the Prosecutorial Chamber. When he is elected, it is the authority of the Ethics Commission of the Judicial Chamber”, he specified.
”Because the judicial system is not independent, as they want it to be, that is why there is this attack against it”, the representative of the Supreme Judicial Council is convinced.
”If there was such a great dependence, the political class itself would not take such actions. Since we are trying to uphold the independence of the system, the desire to master this system is very great”, Boyan Magdalinchev emphasized. “This is clearly seen in the texts, which assume that the Supreme Judicial Council with an expired mandate cannot appoint a prosecutor general. This prohibits this body from fulfilling its constitutionally assigned duties. Trust in the Supreme Judicial Council may be low, but it is higher than that of the parliament”, he added.