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None of the actions of the Bulgarian authorities since December to secure a possible independent investigation by the Prosecutor General provides the necessary guarantees for this, says the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in the recommendations issued today to Bulgaria.
The recommendations are part of the procedure for executing the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights in cases Kolevi against Bulgaria and SZ against Bulgaria, reported by the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee.
The case Kolevi against Bulgaria it is because of the ineffective investigation into the murder of prosecutor Nikolay Kolev, who during his lifetime claimed that his murder was ordered by then-chief prosecutor Nikola Filchev. The other thing – SZ against Bulgaria, it is because of the ineffective investigation and slow judicial procedures for the rape and attempted trafficking of a woman in Blagoevgrad by a group of men, including police officers.
The Council of Europe Committee of Ministers also pauses on the government’s draft of a new constitution, noting that it lacks such guarantees, and notes that this draft is currently in its infancy.
The document provides concrete indications of what would be successful measures: the creation of a constitutional framework according to which the Attorney General should not play a decisive role in the appointment, exercise of disciplinary responsibility or career development of prosecutors and investigators charged with investigating the Attorney General. prosecutor or other high-ranking prosecutors close to him.
The Attorney General should be “excluded from any direct or indirect management of said prosecutor or investigator, and should not have control over any of their activities,” read the recommendations.
The Committee also calls for the introduction of judicial review of refusals to initiate a pre-trial procedure by the prosecution.
At the same time, the recommendations indicate that the preliminary draft of the Council of Ministers that modifies the Criminal Procedure Code of December 2019, which provides that the investigation of the Attorney General and his deputies be carried out by the Prosecutor in charge of the Office of the Prosecutor, “does not provide independence ”of the investigation.
It is also highlighted that the decision of the Constitutional Court of July 23, 2020 – which ruled that the Attorney General could not supervise the legality and methodological orientation in cases in which he himself was investigated or inspected – does not provide guarantees in the investigation from other high-ranking prosecutors close to the Attorney General’s Office. Nor does it change the fact that the Attorney General would continue to influence investigative potential through regulating the appointment, career development, and hierarchy of prosecutors.
In conclusion, it is stated that the Council of Europe body will reconsider the progress in the implementation of the two cases in March 2021.
