site.btaJudges Lend Support to SCC President Panov

Judges Lend Supportto SCC President Panov

Sofia, January 8 (BTA) - A hundred and forty-five judges have supported Supreme Court of Cassation (SCC) President Lozan Panov and a speech he delivered during observances of the court's 135th anniversary.

This comes in the wake of an alert submitted to the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) that Panov's speech was politically motivated.

On Friday, judges from the Supreme Court of Cassation, the Sofia Appellate Court, the Sofia City Court, the Sofia Regional Court, the district court in Rousse and the regional courts in Razlog and Lukovit filed a petition with the SJC.

On December 11, following Justice Minister Hristo Ivanov's resignation over Parliament's failure to vote through constitutional changes regarding the distribution of the professional quotas of prosecutors and judges on the SJC, Lozan Panov said during the formal ceremony that the efforts put in hindering the judicial reform were understandable: "otherwise, citizens would have won back the State".

"We hear that it doesn't matter how the SJC and its colleges are elected because upcoming changes in various laws and codes are far more important for the judicial reform. This is a lie, and its constant repetition does not make it a truth," Panov added.
He said that because of his words he might be branded as "a terrorist plotting a coup". "If the Bulgarian oligarchy has its own State, then any attempt to deliver the State back to citizens can indeed be called 'a coup'."

The SJC's Ethics Commission is expected to consider the case on Monday.