site.btaProbe Opened into Content of Leaked Phone Call Recordings between Magistrates

Probe Opened into Content of Leaked Phone Call Recordings between Magistrates

Sofia, November 30 (BTA) - A probe has started into the content of recorded telephone conversations between the former President of the Sofia City Court, Vladimira Yaneva, and former judge Roumyana Chenalova, which have been leaking to the press in the past weeks, Prosecutor General Sotir Tsatsarov told the press here Monday.

A probe has already opened to try to establish who made the recordings but it left aside the allegations made in the conversations.

Tsatsarov said that the Sofia City Prosecution Office will be conducting the new probe.

Recorded phone talks between Chenalova and Yaneva, that started to be leaked in installments to the media in mid-November, suggest that various high-ranking members of the Executive and the Judiciary, including Prime Minister Boyko Borissov and Prosecutor General Sotir Tsatsarov, have allegedly tried to influence the course of a probe against Yaneva over the unlawful surveillance warrants signed by her. In subsequent remarks to the press Chenalova said that Yaneva and Tsatsarov have tried to influence her decisions on cases she had been judging, and that other judges in Sofia City Court had also come under their pressure. The matter was taken to Brussels by a Bulgarian e-zine which asked a comment from the European Commission and it said that "an independent check can happen only if those allegedly involved are excluded from participation in the process".

In a comment on Monday Tsatsarov made a link between the recorded conversations and contemplated revisions to the Constitution concerning the Judiciary. He said that the recordings are part of a plot engineered by a certain political force and that the plot will be on for as long as the constitutional revisions are on the agenda.

Tsatsarov once again denied ever having a conversation with the Prime Minister about the removal of Yaneva - which is what one of the recorded conversations suggests, and said that he had only met the former Sofia City Court president before she was removed from office, thus denying an allegation she makes in another installment of the phone calls.