site.btaProsecutor General Tsatsarov Does Not See Grounds to Petition Court to Discontinue Work of Bulgarian Helsinki Committee

October 8 (BTA) - Prosecutor General Sotir Tsatsarov
considers unfounded a demand from the VMRO party, part of the
power-sharing coalition of the United Patriots, to petition the
court to have the activities of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee
 (BHC) discontinued, the prosecuting magistracy said in a press
release Tuesday.

Amid a controversy over the recent conditional early release of
an Australian man serving a 20-year prison sentence for killing
a man in Bulgaria, VMRO on September 30 asked Tsatsarov to
discontinue the activities of the BHC because of "inadmissible
interference with Bulgaria's judicial system". The alert argued
that the BHC "directly and indirectly exerts pressure on
Bulgarian magistrates and engages in unconstitutional, unlawful,
 immoral and openly anti-Bulgarian activities." It singled out,
as BHC's most scandalous activity, the arrangement of workshops
for judges, prosecutors and investigating magistrates "some of
whom subsequently decide the fate of proven criminals like
[Australian Jock] Palfreeman".

In his reasoning rejecting the demand, Tsatsarov says that there
 is no information in VMRO's alert that BHC is financed with
money from terrorism or to be engaged in such an activity, which
 constitute grounds in respect of which only the Prosecutor
General is legitimized to approach the court. Tsatsarov also
invokes the constitutional right of assembly. RY/ZH



/СН/