Penalty Imposed by Bulgaria's Judicial Council Seen as Retaliation

Bulgaria's Supreme Judicial Council (VSS) has penalized Miroslava Todorova, Chair of the Union of Judges in Bulgaria (UJB) and a judge at the Sofia City Court (SCC), with a 15% wage cut for 2 years due to a "systematic failure to observe deadlines.

The disciplinary penalty was backed by 18 VSS members, with no votes against and one abstainee.

Lazar Gruev, Chair of the Supreme Court of Cassation (VKS) and Chief Prosecutor Boris Velchev walked out of VSS' Friday session just before the vote on the sanction.

Three other VSS members were absent from the session.
VSS' decision can be appealed.

In the summer of 2011, when the disciplinary action was opened, Todorova wrote a letter of objection, saying that the delays were a fundamental problem that could be solved through a better distribution of the workload at the courts and the prosecutor's offices.

Todorova insisted that penalizing magistrates was no solution because the delays would persist if the number of trials exceeded the capacity of the respective units of the judiciary.
In the summer of 2011, the VSS Inspectorate initiated a check at the Penal Division of the Sofia City Court. Disciplinary action was proposed against 4 judges over delayed cases.

Vladimira Yaneva, SCC Chair, was found to have delayed 43 cases, Miroslava Todorova 59 cases Vladimir Astardzhiev 31 cases, and Ivan Koev, 32 cases.

Vladimir Astardzhiev was imposed a penalty of a 10% wage cut for a period of 6 months and Ivan Koev was penalized with a reprimand.

The only judge who has not been penalized so far is Yaneva, whose appointment as SCC Chair was confirmed legal only recently, and who became the very reason for the check at SCC' Penal Division.

In the beginning of December, the UJB was awarded the annual "Human of the Year" award of Bulgarian Helsinki Committee (BHC) in recognition of its contribution to human rights.

Again in the summer of 2011, the UJB, which brings together over 1000 judges, asked VSS to resign collectively to "put an end to the unprecedented crisis of public trust" caused by the series of controversial appointments it made.

"During past year, the UJB made a revolutionary step by demanding the resignation of the Supreme Judicial Council, so that the model of this venal and incurable structure is completely reexamined and reconstructed. One day, one of these days, the impious status quo of the judiciary will break down and those who support it will collapse with it. The reason will be the UJB, their resilience and durability – the firmness with which they pick out right from wrong; in our interest, the people's interest," said Margarita Ilieva, BHC Deputy Chair, during the December 09 award ceremony, as cited by humanoftheyear.org.

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