Bulgarian Parliament fills its quota in the panel of the SJC Inspectorate

Yesterday, at an extraordinary session, the Bulgarian Parliament filled its quota in the panel of the SJC (Supreme Judicial Council) Inspectorate. A total of 10 magistrates were elected as inspectors, including Albena Yordanova Kuzmanova, Albena Kirilova Kostova, Vessela Stoyanova Nikolova, Zaharinka Todorova Dimitrova, Lyubomir Ivanov Georgiev, Monika Georgieva Malinova, Petar Raymundov, Svetlana Boshnakova and Yanka Gocheva. Tsoni Tsonev - chairman of the SJC Ethics Committee - was nominated and elected as judicial inspector. His nomination was supported by Krassimir Tsipov from GERB (Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party). Tsonev served as deputy to the former chief prosecutor, Nikola Filchev.

The leader of Order, Law and Justice (OLJ), Yane Yanev, withdrew the nomination of Ivan Kolev for inspector at the SJC Inspectorate. Kolev was one of the 12 nominees for the ten vacant posts of judicial inspectors who will be dismissed in January. Ivan Kolev, who is a member of the Supreme Judicial Council, became notorious after the scandal with the ill-famed businessman from the Pleven city, Krassimir Georgiev - Krassyo 'the swarthy man', when he publicly announced that "a man wearing golden chainlets" offered the magistrates to secure them posts in the judicial system against a bribe of €200,000.

Shortly before the vote in the National Assembly, the Bulgarian Judges Association (BJA) sent an open letter to the MPs, asking them to suspend the election procedure for appointing inspectors to the SJC Inspectorate. According to the largest judges' organisation, the election procedure of inspectors should start anew. Moreover, according to the BJA, Parliament needs to discuss the activities of the current Inspectorate and asses its performance. "The process of nomination of the new SJC panel cannot be objectively convincing in its democratic legitimacy without a proper debate in the National Assembly on the current problems of the judiciary and without an analysis and assessment of the positive and negative points of the activity of the SCJ's first term in office," wrote the judges in their letter, which was addressed to the European Commission.

The Bulgarian Helsinki Committee (BHC) declared its opposition to the election procedure. It insisted that the Justice Minister, Diana Kovacheva, must take a stand "on the current vicious procedure in Parliament for the selection of the SJC Inspectorate and take all necessary measures to suspend it."

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