site.btaReport Identifies Hundreds of Violations in Issue of Surveillance Warrants

Report Identifies Hundreds of  Violations in Issue of  Surveillance Warrants

Sofia, April 4 (BTA) - A 70-page report identifies hundreds of violations in the issue of surveillance warrants by the court. The report was prepared by Sofia City Court President Kaloyan Topalov and has already been referred to the Prosecutor General calling for a probe.

Between 2009 and 2014, the names of the judges allowing use of special surveillance means, were not put down. As a result of this, there is no way to know how many warrants were signed by the court president and how many by his assistants. For long years, the court did not keep a copy of the surveillance application.

The classified information division of the court did not keep a record for the surveillance applications despite an order to this effect by then Sofia City Court President Vladimira Yaneva.

A check also found that surveillance warrants were sometimes issued even though the applications lacked reasoning. Some of the applications did not even make it clear whether the investigation that the surveillance was going to be part of, was in Bulgaria or abroad.

There were multiple cases in which the same person filed two surveillance applications on the same day for the same case and the same person to be put under surveillance.

In 50 cases, the court allowed surveillance of a person whose name is not mentioned. Kaloyan Topalov believes that these cases violated the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

In 60 cases surveillance warrants were unlawfully issued by the wrong court in Bulgaria.