site.btaSJC, Justice Minister Discuss Suspected Pre-term Mandate Suspension

SJC, Justice Minister Discuss Suspected Pre-term Mandate Suspension


Sofia, January 8 (BTA) - The Supreme Judicial Council held an
extraordinary meeting Thursday for a hearing of Justice Minister
 Hristo Ivanov. On December 22, the Justice Ministry received a
letter, signed by 11 members of the SJC, proposing that Minister
 Hristov convene an extraordinary meeting of the Council on
December 29. The letter's authors insisted that convening the
extraordinary meeting was urgent because the Minister must be
heard in connection to his statement about indications
transpiring from the SJC that the election of the Supreme Court
of Cassation's (SCC) president is pre-determined.

The impression is that something irregular is being done, SJC
member Yasen Todorov said, to which Ivanov responded that there
is an accumulation of circumstances. The Minister also recalled
that there is a considerable delay between the first and second
procedure of the election. Ivanov also quoted two other SJC
members as saying that "the appropriate candidate is being
sought"
(Milka Itova) and that one of the contenders is a "pragmatic
choice" (Lozan Panov).

The haste to announce an election procedure could be interpreted
 in the direction that there should only one candidate, Itova
responded. According to SJC member Mihail Kozharev, a common
position of the council and the minister is called for to work
on the reforming of the system. He also expressed doubt that
this could be a scenario for piling additional blame on the SJC
or even an opportunity for pre-term termination of its mandate
and a probable quest for pliable SJC members to elect a
President of the Supreme Administrative Court among the leaders
of the Reformist Bloc.

 Ivanov's response was to recall his own clear statements that
such a move would be detrimental.

SJC member Galya Georgieva gave the Justice Minister a file with
 a timeline of the procedures involved in the election of the
previous Presidents of the Supreme Court of Cassation and the
incumbent President of the Supreme Administrative Court which,
she said, were not transparent./VI/BR