Is division in Supreme Judicial Council Still in Place?

Tension remains between the members of the Supreme Judicial Council on the issue of the hearing of Chief Prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov as regards the meeting with businessman Sasho Donchev in the office of Georgi Gergov. “A check is not necessary, Tsatsarov enjoys the trust of the majority of senior magistrates,” SJC representative, Dimitar Uzunov, said. The opposite view was expressed in the studio of BNT morning programme "The Day Begins" by Sonya Naidenova from the SJC Judges’ College.

According to Uzunov, it is necessary to check the chairperson of the Supreme Court of Cassation Lozan Panov. Judge Naydenova replied that there was such check and checks should be for everyone in order to dispel any doubts.

Dimitar Uzunov said that some data, photographs, exchanged SMS messages between Mr. Panov and the manager and owner of a powerful law firm in Sofia appeared in the public domain. “Mr. Panov used the office Mercedes, with the guards, to go to this office. And how did not any of us ask him - Mr. Panov, why did you go to this office?”, Uzunov said.

“With regard to Mr Panov, all the allegations, which Mr Uzunov had said earlier, are subject to consideration by the Ethics Committee. All these allegations for facts related to photos of Mr. Panov in friont of a law firm; photographs related to the allegation that the face on the photo is a lawyer of Tsvetan Vassilev (former majority shareholder of collapsed Corporate Commercial Bank); leaked transcripts in the public domain - all of these allegations were the subject of an alert submitted to the SJC which was personally directed by Mr Uzunov for consideration in the ethics committee of the Judges College. So, it is not true that a check on Mr Panov is not being carried out. It is done in the order established by the SJC, “ Judge Sonya Naidenova said.