Prosecutor’s office: No need of a special prosecutor to investigate Prosecutor General

An entirely negative opinion on the need to create a new position of a special prosecutor with powers to investigate crimes allegedly committed by the Prosecutor General was submitted to the National Assembly by the state public Prosecutor’s Office on December 15.

The opinion of the prosecution comes in connection with the draft changes submitted by MPs from the governing coalition GERB and United Patriots to amend the Code of Criminal Procedure (CPC), which provides for the exclusive competence of a particular prosecutor to deal with investigations against the Prosecutor General, in the event of crimes committed by him/her.

The most important emphasis in the opinion of the Prosecutor’s office refers to the lack of any need for creating such a new position, as both the law and the Constitution have already provided a mechanism for investigating the Prosecutor General if there is evidence of a crime committed by him/her.

The government proposes: A prosecutor to investigate the chief prosecutor

The state prosecution also refers to Decision №11 of 23 July 2020, recently ruled by the Constitutional Court in constitutional case №15/2019, according to which every prosecutor in the state has jurisdiction and can independently conduct an investigation of the Prosecutor General, in which case the powers of the latter for the supervision of legality and methodological guidance do not relate to the case in which the Prosecutor General is suspected of a crime.

For this reason, the prosecution refuses to take a stand on the specific ideas of GERB and United Patriots for changes in the Criminal Procedure Code.

"Each prosecutor is functionally independent and when he/she is assigned to carry out an inspection or conduct an investigation on a signal against the chief prosecutor, he/she owes obedience only to the law. In these cases, the supervision for legality and methodological guidance over the activity of all prosecutors, carried out by the Prosecutor General under Article 126, paragraph 2 of the Constitution, are excluded, ”the Prosecutor's office motivated its opinion.

It is emphasized explicitly: “All citizens are equal before the law and no privileges based on social status are allowed (Article 6 of the Constitution). This principle in itself creates an impossibility for the Prosecutor General to take advantage of any privileges that distinguish him from all other citizens of the Republic of Bulgaria. In the presence of data or evidence of a crime committed by the Prosecutor General, he/she has no legal authority to influence the procedural development of the case.

The Prosecutor's Office also wrote in its opinion that there are numerous legal guarantees that the powers of the Prosecutor General are not absolute and are exercised in specific legal procedures.

There is a connection between the two powers of the Prosecutor General, which is expressed in the fact that with effective methodological guidance, with accurate and uniform application of the law by all prosecutors, the need for the Prosecutor General to rule on specific prosecutorial acts is objectively limited." the state prosecution adds.

"Under the existing legislation, in fact, the Prosecutor's Office annually receives numerous signals against the Prosecutor General, on which prosecutors work according to their competence. The standard is the same, regardless of the official position of the person against whom the signal is directed. In this regard, no legislative obstacles or practical difficulties in the application of the law have been identified.

The above does not justify the need to create a new position of a prosecutor with exclusive competence to investigate the Prosecutor General. In view of the negative opinion expressed in this way, the Prosecutor's Office will not take a stand on the specific texts of the draft amendments," the Prosecutor's office concluded.

Чуйте последните новини, където и да сте!
Последвайте ни във Facebook и Instagram
Следете и канала на БНТ в YouTube
Вече може да ни гледате и в TikTok
Намерете ни в Google News