site.btaPresident Refers to Constitutional Court Amendments Establishing Procedure for Investigation of Prosecutor General

February 24 (BTA) - A day after the publication in the State Gazette of the Act to Supplement the Criminal Procedure Code, introducing a special prosecutor empowered to investigate the prosecutor general or a deputy prosecutor general, President Rumen Radev referred the amendments to the Constitutional Court over the unconstitutionality of key texts from the Act, the head of State's press secretariat said here on Wednesday.

The revisions were moved by the ruling GERB party and were passed by Parliament on January 29 in response to persistent criticism by the EU and the Council of Europe Venice Commission over the lack of accountability of the Prosecutor General. On February 10, President Radev imposed a suspensory veto on the revisions but Parliament overturned it on February 17.

In his petition to the Constitutional Court, Radev lists the same arguments for the revisions' unconstitutionality that he raised in his February 10 veto, the head of State's press secretariat said. According to the President, the law does not provide a fair and certain solution to the lack of an effective mechanism for investigating a sitting prosecutor general or a deputy prosecutor general. Also, the introduction of a new office of a prosecutor to carry out such an investigation breaches a number of constitutional principles, including the independence of the court, the independence of prosecutors within the judiciary, and the equality of citizens before the law.
RY/DS


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