The caretaker government re-enacted the bill which provides for an investigation mechanism for the Prosecutor General. It was tabled in the 48th Parliament, but it was only approved at first reading in January and then MPs did not have time to vote on it definitively.
After the government meeting today, Caretaker Minister of Justice Krum Zarkov explained who will have the right to investigate the country’s top prosecutor:
“The bill provides for a judge of the High Court, Court of Appeal or District Court, but with the rank of Chief Justice, to preside over an investigation against the Prosecutor General or his deputy, when there is reason to do so. He will be temporarily appointed as a prosecutor in the Supreme Court of Cassation and will be determined on a random basis according to a list previously approved by the General Assembly of the criminal collegium of the Supreme Court of Cassation.“
„This is the bill that will finally bring Bulgaria in line with the requirements of the European standards and last but not least – with the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the Kolev case. This bill will take off our backs more than 90 judgments against Bulgaria. It also has symbolic significance. It has been much talked about even after the National Assembly has finished. I turn with hope to what will happen after the elections,“, Zarkov further commented.
The Minister emphasized that many people were asking the question whether the investigation of the Prosecutor General exhausted the entire judicial reform. He explained that this was not the case, but this bill was the thing without which there could be no judicial reform at all:
„This is the litmus test for the presence of political will. And if such a will will not take the first step, there cannot be such a will to go all the way. I hope that this bill will be seriously discussed and considered, but above all that it will be adopted, and that already in the first months of the next National Assembly, because this bill is expected by Bulgarian citizens and our international partners as a decisive step forward in the implementation of judicial reform.“
Zarkov was also adamant:
„I want to express the firm determination of the Council of Ministers to bring this issue to a successful end.“
