Caretaker government proposes new rules for control over the chief prosecutor

The European Commission has raised the issue of the accountability of the Prosecutor General and his deputies, as well as the public control of his acts, the new caretaker Minister of Justice Ivan Demerdzhiev told BNT breakfast show on November 4..

Therefore, the caretaker government has outlined specific legislative measures on this issue in the Recovery and Resilience Plan. Their implementation is also linked to the receipt of the funding set in the plan.

The proposed measures stipulate that the chief prosecutor can be investigated only by prosecutors with the rank of prosecutors from the Supreme Cassation Prosecutor's Office. Demerdzhiev clarified that this is not just about those working in the Supreme Cassation Prosecutor’s Office, but about all those who hold this rank.

A random selection of the prosecutor to lead the investigation is envisaged, as well as the possibility for the chief prosecutor to be temporarily suspended from office while an investigation against him is ongoing.

It is also envisaged that that the investigating prosecutor will have the opportunity to become a judge of the same rank after completing his work on the investigation of the chief prosecutor. Demerdzhiev believes that changes in the Constitution are not necessary for the implementation of all this.

He commented that specialised prosecutor’s office and specialised courts should exist, but not in the way the current structure works. The Ministry of Justice has proposed structures to be established to the appellate regions to carry out this activity.

The new caretaker Minister of Justice also commented that he does not see trust on the part of the professional circles in the work of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC).

According to him, in the recent months the SJC has been fleeing from making important decisions through various procedural steps and has postponed the consideration of requests of exceptional public importance. Thus, the problems accumulate more and more.

The caretaker Minister of Justice believes that a balance should be found in the quotas nominating the composition of the Supreme Judicial Council.

According to Demerdzhiev, there should be changes in the procedures for obtaining Bulgarian citizenship. He opted for cancelling of the so-called citizenship by investment, which means acquiring Bulgarian citizenship in exchange of investments in the country.