Bulgaria's New Deputy Justice Minister Discredited by Strasbourg Sentence

Bulgaria has been been sanctioned by the Human Rights Court in Strasbourg because of a controversial ruling on behalf of Denitsa Petkova, a former judge who was recently appointed as the country's new deputy Justice Minister.

In 2003, Petkova sentenced two Bulgarian journalists for slander after they claimed they discovered a corruption scheme allowing pupils with poor results to enter prestigious high schools in the Bulgarian Black Sea city of Burgas.

The children were allegedly admitted by the schools after they presented fake medical documents.

In 2011, the Strasbourg court ruled in favor of the journalists, the Mediapool news agency revealed on Saturday.

The journalists, Bozhidar Bozhkov and Katya Kasabova, received BGN 27 000 and BGN 11 800 respectively as a result of the court's ruling.

On Thursday, Bulgaria's Prime Minister Boyko Borisov announced the appointment of two new deputy Justice Ministers, among whom Denitsa Petkova.

Petkova and Velina Todorova replaced the outgoing Daniela Masheva and Zhaneta Petrova, who had filed their resignations.

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