New Bulgarian Chief Prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov held his first press conference and talked about problems that plague the judicial system. He mentioned a court case for frauds with EU funds under the SAPPARD programme.

The German court pronounced the defendants guilty but at the same time a Bulgarian court acquitted the Bulgarian participants in the fraud. Prosecutor Tsatsarov has informed the EC about the case in details. This happened during his first official visit to Brussels where he met Secretary-General of the European Commission Catherine Day, as well as OLAF Director Giovanni Kessler.

After the chief prosecutor returned to Bulgaria he demanded disciplinary punishment for the Prosecutor at the Sofia Court of Appeal Angel Iliev and dismissal of prosecutor Stoicho Nenkov related to the SAPPARD case. It has been found out that the case was not given to prosecutor Nenkov by random chance as the law requires. This is absolutely intolerable, Mr Tsatsarov says and adds.

“These are big violations of the Justice Law, which requires a prosecutor to be selected randomly for a case. When we take the SAPPARD fraud case we see that 4 consecutive times one and the same prosecutor was selected. Everyone can make a conclusion.”

Sotir Tsatsarov also announced that violations were found in the work of the Inspectorate of the Prosecutor's Office of Cassation. Sanctions for various administrative violations have already been imposed. Here is more from Sotir Tsatsarov who commented the EC calls for reforms in the Bulgarian judicial system.

“The need for reforms is one of the major conclusions of the July report of the EC on the progress of Bulgaria. The Chief Prosecutor must receive a mandate to carry out reforms in the structure and the organization of the prosecution in cooperation with foreign experts. This is what we are doing and what Brussels wants from us.”

The Chief Prosecutor announced that a working group of experts is to prepare a preliminary analysis of the condition of the prosecution. Internal audits will be carried out and the work of all types of structures will be thoroughly analyzed. Mr. Tsatsarov said he also awaits the conclusions of the coming audit of the EC before making general conclusions.

English version: Alexander Markov