/ world today news/ We demand the immediate resignation of the chairman of the Appellate Specialized Criminal Court – Georgi Ushev and the closure of the Specialized Criminal Court. We declare that the rule of law is a criterion of civility. Bulgaria deserves a government at all levels and bodies to guarantee it. This is stated in a position adopted by the delegates of the XIV Conference of the BSP – Sofia.
The reason is that on May 18, in the program “Face to face” with presenter Tsvetanka Rizova, the chairman of the Appellate Specialized Criminal Court, Georgi Ushev, when asked by the presenter about sentences handed down by the court to persons in the upper echelons of power for corruption, gave an example of the verdict of the first instance of the former Minister of Economy and Energy and member of the BSP – Rumen Ovcharov, violating basic European and Bulgarian normative documents, including and the Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria.
The full text of the position:
POSITION
at the XIV Conference of the Sofia City Organization of the BSP
Driven by the conviction that the rule of law is the foundation of every democratic civil society, that its principles are one of the main values on which the European Union is based, of which our country has been a part for 14 years, and that each of the three authorities in our country is responsible for ensuring respect for the principles of the rule of law, as a basic democratic value, we categorically oppose attempts by authorized persons to grossly trample on these principles, violating the Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria, the laws of the country and international legal norms.
On May 18, 2021, in the program “Face to Face” with presenter Tsvetanka Rizova, the chairman of the Appellate Specialized Criminal Court – Georgi Ushev, when asked by the presenter for an example of sentences handed down by the court to persons in the upper echelons of power for corruption, gave example with the sentence of the first instance of the former Minister of Economy and Energy and member of the BSP – Rumen Ovcharov, violating basic European and Bulgarian normative documents, including and the Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria.
The gross trampling of the legal order by a senior representative of the judiciary, on the one hand, gives an eloquent explanation for the fact that Bulgaria is in last place in the EU in terms of applying the rule of law, and on the other hand, it shows why Bulgarians do not have the “feeling” that the Bulgarian justice system guarantees fair trial and protection of basic human rights. The latter is bound by legal, constitutional and international acts, with guarantees that are the foundations of the construction of the rule of law. Justice, as a rule of conduct addressed to those who by law must apply it, is an immanent part of the judicial process and provides criteria for its evaluation, which serves as a “barometer” taking into account the implementation of constitutional commands and international standards for the construction of legal and a democratic state, equality before the law and protection of the rights and legitimate interests of citizens. When representatives of law-enforcement institutions, with actions and statements, demonstrate disrespect for basic human rights, apparently with a sense of impunity, the foundations of the legal and democratic state are seriously threatened.
With his statement, Mr. Ushev violated basic principles in the judicial process. The principle of impartiality of the court in criminal proceedings, regulated in Art. 4 and Art. 14 of the Criminal Code, which determines the decision-making by magistrates based on internal conviction, guided only by the law. In order to guarantee the application of this principle, the legislator also introduced the prohibition under Art. 212 of the Civil Code and Art. 7.4 of the Code of Ethical Behavior of Bulgarian Magistrates, for the representatives of the judiciary to express a preliminary opinion on the cases assigned to them, as well as an opinion on cases, which are not assigned to them. A requirement for such a guarantee has also been introduced by Article 6, item 6 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, as the countries that are parties to the Convention are obliged to introduce rules to guarantee the objectivity and impartiality of the judge or the judicial panel when considering and deciding the case, in .h guarantees against outside pressure, mainly from the executive, political parties and higher-ranking magistrates.
In this case, the inadmissible and approving statement of the conviction of the first instance verdict, which has not entered into force, given as an example of good work of the specialized justice was made by the administrative head of the court before which the case is being heard at the moment of second instance. As such, Mr. Ushev has a direct relationship, as powers, to the career development, disciplinary sanctioning and promotion of the members of the composition, therefore his statement is obviously aimed at predetermining, in a certain reprehensible direction, their decision. There is an attempt at impermissible influence under the law, which threatens the confidence that the Court should instill in a democratic society. The court in Strasbourg has issued such a decision in numerous cases – Busmeci v. Italy, Piersac v. Belgium, De Coubert v. Belgium, Torgeir Toyrgersson v. Iceland, Padovani v. Italy, Lavente v. Latvia, Kyprianou v. Cyprus. Everyone knows that in these cases, for the illegal behavior of high officials and magistrates, we all pay.
Mr. Ushev also violated the principle of innocence until proven otherwise by an effective sentence in the criminal trial, enshrined in Art. 31 para. 3 of the Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria, Directive (EU) 2016/343 and Art. 6 of the Criminal Procedure Code , disregarding the philosophy and letter of the law and the Convention that a person accused of committing a crime is initially presumed innocent. His guilt should be proven during the court proceedings only on the basis of the evidence collected by the court and the law. In this sense are the reasons in the Rezov v. Bulgaria case of February 15, 2007, according to which the presumption of innocence would be violated if an official’s statement /incl. and a magistrate/ in respect of a person charged with the commission of an offence, contains an opinion that the person is guilty before his guilt is proved in accordance with law. The court has gone even further, determining that it is sufficient, in the absence of any formal finding, to have some reason to believe that the official is treating the accused as guilty. In the same sense are the reasons of the ECtHR in the cases of Daktaras v. Lithuania from 1998 and Falkovich v. Ukraine from 2004.
The right to a fair trial is a primordial human right enshrined in ancient times that must be respected. In view of the fact that we live in a legal and democratic country, the observance of all human rights is absolutely mandatory for every single body in the country.
Unfortunately, representatives of the specialized court, in this case in the person of Mr. Ushev, justified the well-founded fears of the judges of the Supreme Court and the Supreme Bar Council, as well as the entire society, already at its creation, that the Specialized Criminal Court would become an extraordinary court, in a political club and a repressive machine against representatives of the opposition that are inconvenient for the authorities. How else can one explain the fact that as an example of dealing with corruption a case is given that does not involve corrupt practices, and that in the situation that there are no investigations and cases of illegal actions by representatives of the former government for the uncollected fees in the amount of 700 million in gambling, for the billions of BGN written off from uncollected taxes during the time of GERB’s administration, for the billions of loans given out by BBR to companies close to the government, for the billions seized during the construction of public infrastructure and for many others. The answer is obvious: the goal is to divert attention from these facts and cover up the outrages of GERB and Boyko Borisov.
Prof. Zhivko Stalev is the author of the thesis that “a justice system without justice is a type of organized crime”. Manifestation of such a justice system created the management of GERB in the form of the Specialized Criminal Court.
We, the delegates of the XVI Conference of the Sofia City Organization of the BSP, stand in solidarity with the decision adopted by the Regional Conference of the BSP – Triaditsa on the occasion of the public speech and behavior of Judge Georgi Ushev, and we demand that this racketeering court be closed. We insist that magistrates like Mr. Ushev have no place in our justice system, in order to restore the confidence of Bulgarians in it. When in a country the court and high magistrates are used for political repression, that country has irretrievably lost its essence and has broken the social contract with citizenship. We do not wish to live in such a country.
We demand the immediate resignation of the chairman of the Appellate Specialized Criminal Court – Georgi Ushev and the closure of the Specialized Criminal Court.
We declare that the rule of law is a criterion of civility. Bulgaria deserves a government at all levels and bodies to guarantee it.
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