site.btaSupreme Judicial Council Fails for Third Time to Elect Sofia Appellate Court Chair

Supreme Judicial Council Fails for Third Time to Elect Sofia  Appellate Court Chair

Sofia, April 30 (BTA) - The Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) 
failed for a third time to elect a chair of the Sofia Appellate
 Court (SAC). The only candidate on Thursday was judge Neli 
Kutskova, who received nine votes in favour out of the 13
required, four votes against and six abstentions, which caused a
 heated debate.

Supreme Court of  Cassation President Lozan Panov, who supported
 the candidate,  proposed a new vote on the decision.
   
Bulgaria's third biggest court was left without a chair when its
  former head, Vesselin Pengezov, was removed from office due to
  a renewed investigation from 2010, in which charges were
brought  against him. He still ran in the first elections around
 a year  ago but did not receive support from the SJC members.
The second  elections failed because none of the two candidates
- Pengezov  and SAC Deputy  Chair Stefan Grozdev - received the
necessary  number of votes.

Kutskova has been in the judicial system since 1982. She has 
worked at a regional court, at the Sofia City Court, at the 
Sofia District Court as its chair from 1993 to 2004, and she 
currently works at the Sofia Appellate Court's civil department.
  Between 1992 and 1993, she was deputy justice minister, and 
from 1999 to 2003 she was a member of the Supreme Judicial 
Council.

Speaking before the SJC on Thursday, Kutskova said: "I am very 
hurt by the whole injustice towards judges, we were presented as
  guilty for the entire muss in the country. The main thing
which  convinced me to run [in the elections for SAC Chair] is
the  need of some normality, and because judges do not deserve
this  attitude."
   
The commercial judges have the biggest workload at SAC at 
present, she also said. In her opinion, their case allocation 
should be checked because it is uneven, and the problem should 
be solved with the judges' participation. "I would not like part
  of the present deputy chairs to remain because I do not trust
 them. I would like to hear also my colleagues in the court," 
Kutskova said.

The SJC meeting was not attended by Supreme Administrative Court
 Chair Georgi Kolev and Prosecutor General Sotir Tsatsarov.

Yasen Todorov said he did not support Kutskova because she is
politically involved. Her election for SAC Chair would deepen
the division within the guild of judges, he argued.

Emerging from the meeting, Justice Minister Hristo Ivanov said
that those who had doubted the well-groundedness of the proposal
 for the secret voting's removal should now focus on this case.
In his words, it does not matter who the candidate is, but when
ten SJC members voice support for him/her and then the cast
votes in favour are nine, this demonstrates the inability to
take transparent decisions.

"When we propose changes in the Constitutions which would clear
the issues with transparency and with the clear connection
between the SJC members and those who have elected them, the
former are more motivated by such cases," Ivanov went on to say.
 Secret voting allows the adoption of decisions based on other
considerations, he added.

According to Panov, the SJC sent a negative and sad signal with
the failed vote. The idea of open instead of secret voting
should be introduced, he argued. Decisions like this Thursday's
should be taken by a college of judges, which is an argument in
favour of the SJC's division into several colleges, he noted.

Kutskova described what happened at the meeting as hypocrisy.
"Unfortunately, I did not get an answer from the SJC why the
vote was such," she said.