site.btaSupreme Judges Frown on Probe at Specialized Courts

Sofia, May 27 (BTA) - The General Assembly of the Criminal
Chamber of the Supreme Court of Cassation (SCC-CC) on Thursday
objected to a decision by the Judges Chamber of the Supreme
Judicial Council (SJC-JC) concerning a probe at the specialized
courts.

On Tuesday, SJC-JC held a draw to select 18 judges from various
parts of Bulgaria to form a committee which will probe the
Specialized Criminal Court and the Appellate Specialized
Criminal Court. The committee includes six judges from appellate
 courts and the Military Appellate Court, and 12 magistrates
from the SCC selected on a random basis.

Meeting on Wednesday evening, the SCC-CC General Assembly
observed that the 12 SCC magistrates did not learn of their
election to the investigative committee until Wednesday
afternoon, although they were elected earlier.

The first thing that the supreme judges object to is a number of
 uncertainties about the objective of the probe and the legal
basis on which the investigative committee was built. If the
probe is motivated by plans to close the specialized judicial
authorities, it represents unacceptable encroachment on the
exclusive competence of the legislature,

SCC-CC recalled that there is a special judicial body in charge
of conducting probes - that is, the SJC Inspectorate, which
controls the organization of the administrative activities of
the courts. The supreme judges also find it inexplicable why the
 investigative committee does not include SJC-JC
representatives. They even propose that the analysis be
conducted by retired SCC judges of undoubted competence and
integrity.

SCC-CC accused SJC-JC of overstepping their powers by tasking
SCC judges with an activity for which there is no legal
regulation. The supreme magistrates further argued that SCC, as
a court of last instance, exercises control over the two
specialized courts' decisions, which means that the work of the
Appellate Specialized Criminal Court is analyzed all the time
through the mechanisms of higher instance control. It is also
possible to create a conflict-of-interest situation if it comes
to checking pending cases at SCC itself.

Moreover, SCC-CC disagrees that the specialized courts should be
 checked for 10 years, because such a check was already carried
out earlier on, and a second one would be like "probing the
probe."

The involvement of 12 criminal judges, who make up half of the
SCC-CC, will stall the work of the supreme court. NV/VE