Controversial Bulgarian Judge Gets New Indictment

Rumyana Chenalova, a dismissed judge who has been at the center of several high-profile scandals in Bulgaria and faces several charges, has been indicted again, private bTV station reports, citing prosecutors.

Her new indictment contains charges of issuing a false judicial protocol and abuse of office.

These are related to her decision to impose distraint on BGN 6.3 M worth of assets of the National Electricity Company (NEK) in a case where the latter was a defendant. She also failed to make sure the judicial fee required for the trial to kick off is collected, thus effectively stalling the case for two years.

Her charges until Tuesday included with three counts of disciplinary action and charges of malfeasance and document abuse.

Chenalova's name emerged in the spotlight after the former French Ambassador, Xavier Lapeyre de Cabanes, suggested her involvement in murky deals around the case of a French company which had been assigned to her (the so-called "Belvedere case").

Among the public, she is known for her involvement in several controversial domestic affairs in her competence of a judge, one dealing with EU funds abuse and the other with the wiretapping of conversations at the time of the 2013 anti-government protests.

The most recent scandal is related to a series of wiretapped recordings which bring up allegations about hidden relations between politicians and the judiciary.

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