Parliament puts an end to the vicious delays of court cases

The Parliament has stopped the vicious practice for court cases to remain unresolved for years, being redirected between different courts. This happened with the latest changes to the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC), which the National Assembly voted yesterday. The new texts do not allow more than one return of a case from the second to the first instance and the last resort - the Supreme Court of Cassation (SCC) can return the case just twice.

"We have adopted amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code, which eliminate the deficiency in relation to the speed of criminal proceedings and this kind of ping-pong between the instances," said MP from GERB (Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria) and member of the parliamentary Legal Affairs Committee Krasimir Tsipov.

In addition to this, the SCC will be able to hear cases as a cassation instance, which verifies the decisions of the other two instances in a five-member panel. Up to now, the law provided that only three judges partake in the sessions.

Through other changes to the CPC, customs officers are given the right to investigate crimes related to smuggling. They will be called investigating customs inspectors and will be appointed by the Minister of Finance on a proposal by the Head of the Customs Agency. The inspectors will deal with trade in excise goods without excise labels, with crimes against the customs regime and crimes related to the import and export of currency.

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