Prosecutor’s Office Against Proposals for Changes in Criminal Procedure Code and Criminal Procedure Code, Says Deputy Prosecutor General

According to Geshev’s deputy, Krasimira Filipova, the proposals to introduce an ad hoc prosecutor who can investigate the chief and his deputies are in contradiction with the constitution. She emphasized the thesis of the chief prosecutor Ivan Geshev that even now there is an opportunity for any prosecutor to investigate the chief.

According to the prosecutor’s office, one part of the refusals to initiate pre-trial proceedings is proposed – contrary to the constitution. Under the proposals, only some of the refusals are subject to judicial review, such as refusals to investigate serious premeditated crimes.

“We cannot understand how some persons can be more or less injured – this is contrary to the basic law,” said Krasimira Filipova.

In addition, she pointed out that the prosecution does not understand why the Bulgarian court should deal with this activity – to rule on the refusals of the prosecution to initiate pre-trial proceedings.

“There is no way for an investigator to appear in court and acquire the functions of a prosecutor,” commented Krasimira Filipova on the occasion of “Vazrazhdane”‘s proposal. According to her, this would not guarantee the independence of the investigation.

According to the opinion of the prosecutor’s office, the division of the code of ethics of the Bulgarian magistrates into two – a code of judges and a code of prosecutors – is unnecessary. “We should observe the same ethical standards,” Filipova also said.

“Let’s not forget that on January 10, most of us were here again, when representatives of the SJC gave a reasoned presentation of the opinion of the SJC on the presented bills and mentioned a number of arguments that also apply to the now presented bills”, commented Desislava Pironeva, who is also the Deputy Attorney General. According to her, the arguments are still valid today.

She also pointed out that the Recovery and Resilience Plan is not “insurmountable” if the standards for the Attorney General’s investigation are not adopted in this exact form. “The recommendations of the ECHR still do not set exactly such a requirement,” Pironeva believes.

“We talk a lot about corruption. We talk about the way the Prosecutor General should present the results of attempts to deal with corruption, which is attributed to him by law. The current Criminal Code in no way creates an effective qualification – what is corruption, we don’t have systematization”, commented Pironeva.

According to her, 15 days ago the EC widely promoted a campaign and announced its intention to fight corruption at the EU level, one of the measures being that it will work on a purposeful directive. She appeals not to “repair a piece that needs a new repair” and to receive reprimands “from everywhere”.