Outgoing justice minister Iordanova presents package of measures to hold Prosecutor General criminally liable

Outgoing Justice Minister Nadezhda Iordanova presented during a conference here on Thursday the Council of Ministers' proposals to amend the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Judiciary Act and the Penal Code. She recalled that back in 2009, as part of the Kolevi v. Bulgaria case, the European Court of Human Rights noted that practically there is no objective possibility in Bulgaria to investigate the prosecutor general and hold them criminally liable when there is information about a crime.

"After so many years and numerous recommendations by the Venice Commission, the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers, we present to you the specific mechanism with specific solutions, sought under the current Constitution. It's the result of a months-long hard work at the Justice Ministry, led by Deputy Minister Emil Dechev," Iordanova said.

Part of the Justice Ministry's proposals are the creation of a mechanism for holding the prosecutor general criminally liable; introducing a requirement that Parliament does not elect to the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) active prosecutors and investigators as a measure to limit the prosecutor general's de facto power in the SJC; control by the court over a prosecutor's refusal to initiate pre-trial proceedings for a serious crime; clear rules for making public information from pre-trial proceedings while fully observing the presumption of innocence.

The draft bill will be submitted to the Venice Commission for a statement, and only after the Commission's recommendations are received and taken into account, can it be tabled for approval by Cabinet. The Recovery and Resilience Plan foresees that the amendments will start being implemented in the second quarter of 2023.