site.btaJustice Minister, Supreme Cassation Court President Call for New Check into Yanevagate Recordings

Justice Minister, Supreme Cassation Court President Call for New Check into Yanevagate Recordings

Sofia, November 3 (BTA) - Justice Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva and Supreme Court of Cassation President Lozan Panov on Thursday called for a new check into recorded conversations between former Sofia City Court President Vladimira Yaneva, suspended judge Roumiana Chenalova and lawyer Momchil Mondeshki, which suggest gross external interference in the work of the judiciary. The call comes after Mondeshki told a national daily that the conversations were intentionally recorded by the participants to be used as tools for solving their personal problems.

Zaharieva said the Ethical Commission of the Supreme Bar Council should give the case consideration, especially after Mondeshki's allegations.

Panov will also petition the ethics commission of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) judges college to scrutinize the case.

Recorded conversations between Chenalova, Yaneva and Mondeshki started to be leaked in installments to the media in mid-November 2015 and suggested that various high-ranking members of the executive and the judiciary, including Prime Minister Boyko Borissov and Prosecutor General Sotir Tsatsarov, tried to influence the course of a probe against Yaneva over the unlawful surveillance warrants signed by her.

On Wednesday, in a "Troud" interview, Mondeshki admitted to being the third participant - until recently unidentified - in the recorded conversations and claimed the conversations were recorded at Chenalova's place with a voice recorder, and that all participants knew they were being recorded. In his take of the events, what he discusses with the two judges in the recordings had been totally fabricated and intended to be used as insurance in what Chenalova saw as a smear campaign against her.

He said that Chenalova then took the recordings to former justice minister Hristo Ivanov and figures close to businessman-publisher Ivo Prokopiev to seek help from them - which is how they ended up in Bivol.

Lozan Panov also said there were clear attempts to sweep under the carpet what had happened.

Commenting on Wednesday Mondeshki's allegations, Prime Minister Borissov said he was disgusted but also happy because Bulgarian people finally know who's who in this scandal.

Former Justice Minister Hristo Ivanov wrote in the social media that the prosecution office absolutely must reopen the case after a second participant in the conversations confirms their authenticity.

The prosecution magistracy took up the matter but only probed it as a case of unlawful wiretapping. It dropped it last July arguing that the person who made the recordings could not be identified and found. About a month ago Prosecutor General Sotir Tsatsarov said that during the questioning by prosecutors, the participants in the conversation appeared to have memory lapses and no one remembered about the conversations or who recorded them.