Bulgarian Attorneys Accuse Interior Minister of Undermining State

Daniela Dokovska, Chair of the Supreme Bar Council, has supported the accusations of inadmissible conduct on the part of the Interior Minister. Photo by BGNES

Since the beginning of this government's term in office, Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov has adopted a behavior which grossly violates the Constitution and the laws of the country, according to the Supreme Bar Council.

The association, which brings together close to 12 000 attorneys, has sent a letter of complaint to the President, the Parliamentary Chair and the heads of the parliamentary groups and has also published the statement on its website.

According to Bulgarian attorneys, the Interior Minister "systematically denigrates Bulgaria's independent judiciary in public, erodes confidence in it, creates an atmosphere of hate towards the institution and exerts pressure for the issuance of rulings convenient to the police" .

The letter also reminds of the recent threat of Tsvetanov to name special police operations after magistrates who refuse to satisfy requests for issuing detention orders.

The Supreme Bar Council further reminds of an interview in which Tsvetanov bemoans "the perfect synchronization of attorneys and judges", labeling it as "a symbiosis of organized crime and judiciary in Bulgaria"

Insisting that the words of the Interior Minister overstep social tolerance limits, the association points out that he "openly violates constitutional principles of the rule of law and the division of powers and infringes the presumption of innocence enshrined in the Constitution, as well as Bulgarian legislation and international treaties to which Bulgaria is a party".

The address, signed by the Chair of the association, Daniela Dokovska, also reminds that the Union of Judges in Bulgaria (UJB) has repeatedly demanded that the inadmissible conduct be done away with.

Bulgarian attorneys reiterate the findings of the European Association of Judges (EAJ) that "the unrealistic expectations about severe sentences, the Interior Minister's assumptions about, or even accusations of, corruption and lack of competence on the part of judges, present a risk to the independence of the judiciary and seriously violate the rule of law".

They also cite Gabriela Knaul, UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, as saying that the Bulgarian judiciary is pressured into disregarding the presumption of innocence.

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