site.btaA Third Judge Withdraws from "Belvedere" Case

A Third Judge
Withdraws from
"Belvedere" Case


Sofia, January 7 (BTA) - A third reporting judge, Haigouhi
Bodikyan, recused himself from the "Belvedere" case, the Sofia
City Court said on Wednesday.

The bankruptcy case against two subsidiaries of France's
Belvedere Group had been at the centre of a scandal as French
Ambassador Xavier Lapeyre de Cabanes had accused the first
reporting judge assigned to it, Roumyana Chenalova, of
mishandling the case and expressed doubts about the manner in
which it had been allocated to her. Chenalova was replaced by
judge Plamen Kolev, but he, too, withdrew from the trial on
December 29. After the scandal first flared up, the Supreme
Judicial Council decided to order a more reliable computerized
system to be developed for random assignment of legal cases to
judges.

The third judge, Haigouhi Bodikyan, said in the reasoning for
his withdrawal that the panel of judges assigned to the case
have been influenced by a series of tendentious attacks on the
justice system and on judges in general. Bodikyan said there
have been various allegations and comments which represent gross
interference in the work of the court. This has caused doubts
that the judges have been swayed, he noted.

A fourth reporting judge was selected after Bodikyan's
withdrawal. Valentin Boikinov was chosen using the random case
assignment system. PK/VE


/СН/