site.btaProsecutor to Face Disciplinary Proceedings for Systematic Delay of Case Files

Acting Prosecutor General of the Republic of Bulgaria Borislav Sarafov has submitted a proposal to the Prosecutors Chamber of the Supreme Judicial Council to initiate disciplinary proceedings for disciplinary punishment against Maxim Kolev, a prosecutor at the Supreme Prosecutor's Office of Cassation (SPOC).

The request was made based on an inspection of the prosecutor's work carried out by the Administrative Department of the Supreme Prosecutor's Office, which found delays in prosecutorial case files in the period 01.01.2022 - 12.07.2023.

According to the findings of the report, Prosecutor Kolev has ruled or acted with a delay of up to 2 months in 34 cases, and with a delay of more than 6 months in 69 cases, in 22 of which the delay was from and over a year. The cases were assigned to him while he was in the Specialized Unit’s group investigating corruption offences. Currently, he is on the team of the Judicial Department of the SPOC.

The prosecutor supervised cases of factual and legal complexity in the specialized unit with a significant workload, which was almost twice the average workload of the prosecutors there.

An additional inspection identified 103 cases involving 98 prosecutors' case files, in which between 01.01.2022 and 12.07.2023 Maxim Kolev ruled not only beyond the statutory deadlines, but also beyond the reasonable deadlines in view of the specific nature of the work with which he was entrusted.

The specific files and the findings for each of them are listed in detail in the proposal to the Prosecutors Chamber of the SJC, stating that the delay in ruling on them "constitutes a systematic failure to comply with the time limits provided for in the procedural laws" and is a violation of the Judicial System Act.