site.btaSJC's College of Judges Will not Probe "Yanevagate" Case

SJC's College of Judges Will not Probe "Yanevagate" Case

Sofia, November 8 (BTA) - The Supreme Judicial Council's (SJC) college of judges refused to probe the so called "Yanevagate" case. The proposal to resume the previous probe into the case was rejected with seven votes against and six in favour. Supreme Court of Cassation President Lozan Panov's proposal to initiate a new probe into the case was also rejected with the same number of votes.

The Sofia City Prosecution Office reopened an investigation into what is widely known as "Yanevagate" after an interview with lawyer Momchil Mondeshki in "Troud". Yanevagate flared up when recordings of conversations among two judges and Mondeshki started to be leaked to the media and revealed what appeared to be a system of undue external influences on the judiciary, including from the Prime Minister.

The rejected probes were proposed after Mondeshki's interview and statements.

The SJC college of judges' members discussed the matter for a few hours. It took them a while, because some of the judges left the debate, leaving too few of their colleagues to make a quorum.

According to Supreme Administrative Court President Georgi Kolev, the SJC Inspectorate is the competent body which can take on this case. Despite this, according to Kolev, it would be extremely unpleasant if the statements from the leaked recordings turn out to be true. He believes that the college of judges lacks the powers to do anything about this case.

"Time is being wasted, we are dealing with this case every time, instead of doing other work," Kolev commented, adding that he will propose changes to the college's rules of procedure, so that the agenda is put to the vote each time.

Sofia City Court President and SJC member Kalin Kalpakchiev in turn said that, after all, the college of judges' ethics committee is competent to take on the case. The essence of this argument is the refusal to bring up the issue of "Yanevagate". Given such a case, there would be a probe in any country with the most basic rule of law, Kalpakchiev said. He adamantly denied that there is a connection between the demanded probe and the presidential elections.