site.btaJustice Minister Calls for Swift Resolution to Acting Prosecutor General Situation

The issue of replacing the de facto acting Prosecutor General is not a party-political one, caretaker Justice Minister Andrey Yankulov said on Tuesday in a Facebook post.

The question, which he said weighs heavily on Bulgaria’s justice system, should not be subject to political bargaining or left to await a future redistribution of political forces that might resolve it.

According to Yankulov, the matter concerns restoring "a certain ordinary normality", in which Bulgaria would have an acting Prosecutor General who does not act in violation of the law. He added that such a person should not have been found by supreme court judges to have acted unlawfully, nor be associated with documented information alleging that he told European prosecutors during a meeting in the course of an important disciplinary procedure that the Bulgarian prosecution service had evidence of corruption involving the Bulgarian European Prosecutor.

Yankulov further noted that the Bulgarian prosecution service has not brought corruption charges against the Bulgarian European Prosecutor.

"Do we fully realize the seriousness of this revelation while we are dealing with various other issues surrounding the public appearance of the Bulgarian European Prosecutor the other day?" he asked, noting that the matter had remained without comment a day later from the Prosecutor General and the Sofia City Prosecutor, who were directly concerned.

Bulgaria’s justice system is literally suffocating under the weight of the current situation and it must be brought to an end as soon as possible, the caretaker Justice Minister said.

On Monday, the Justice Ministry said Yankulov had expressed institutional support for any magistrate ready to speak publicly about dependencies and criminal influence in the judicial system. The minister’s team also declared support for a new civic initiative advocating an independent and free judicial system. The petition, signed by magistrates, lawyers and representatives of various professions, calls on citizens and professional communities to openly and consistently support the cause of reclaiming the judiciary from what it describes as the shadows of lawlessness.