Minister of Justice: Bulgarian Judges May Often Be Biased

Bulgarian Minister of Justice Margarita Popova (C) at a forum on the judicial system in the country Tuesday in Sofia. Photo by BGNES

There needs to be introduced a mechanism of control of the unbiasedness of Bulgarian magistrates, according to Bulgarian Minister of Justice Margarita Popova.

Popova, speaking in an interview for the Bulgarian National TV, nevertheless did not specify what that mechanism could be.

"There must be checks, there must be internal controls to evaluate judgments. If we do not introduce such a control on impartiality, then we will continue having a two-track judicial system," said the Minister of Justice.

She was refering in particular to what she saw as a widespread practice of Bulgarian judges to cite "internal conviction" as a basis for interpretation of law in controversial cases.

According to her, such instances need further control to establish the unbiasedness of the judge's decision.

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