site.btaCouncil of Europe Calls for Credible Safeguards against Impunity and to Uphold Rule of Law in Bulgaria

Strasbourg, September 4 (BTA correspondent Nikolay Jeliazkov) -
The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe has urged
Bulgaria to prepare new legislative and, if necessary,
constitutional amendments to help guarantee effective
investigations in the country and to give victims credible
safeguards against impunity, as well as to ensure independent
investigations against a Chief Prosecutor, the Council of Europe
 said in a press release on Friday.

The decision was taken during the committee's latest regular
meeting to examine the implementation of judgments from the
European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

The committee was considering the progress made by Bulgaria
towards implementing a group of ECHR judgments which have been
pending for a number of years, the press release said.

At its September 1-3 meeting, the Committee of Ministers
"stressed again the importance of deploying all possible efforts
 to achieve results in the ongoing investigation in the Kolevi
v. Bulgaria case". It is about the murder of prosecutor Nikolai
Kolev, who claimed that then prosecutor general Nikola Filchev
had commissioned it.

The Council of Europe said: "The judgments highlighted a
systemic problem of ineffective criminal investigations in
Bulgaria and the lack of guarantees for the independence of
criminal investigations concerning the Chief Prosecutor and
other high-ranking officials close to him or her.

"The committee welcomed the adoption of provisions excluding the
 automatic suspension of judges following criminal charges. It
also noted with satisfaction that earlier proposals which could
have threatened the independence of the Presidents of Bulgaria's
 two highest courts were abandoned.

"Nevertheless, regarding investigations concerning the Chief
Prosecutor, the committee noted that neither the legislative
proposals of December 2019 nor the subsequent Constitutional
Court judgment of July 2020 ensured genuine independence. It
found, moreover, that the same applies to the current draft for
a new Constitution.

"The committee urged the Bulgarian authorities to prepare new
legislative and, if necessary, constitutional amendments to
address this issue and encouraged them to draw inspiration from
relevant recommendations from the Council of Europe's Venice
Commission.

"Furthermore, the committee called for new measures to allow the
 judicial review of prosecutorial refusals to open an
investigation, whilst avoiding an excessive additional workload
for courts and prosecutors, and invited the authorities to
consider a number of other steps to help ensure effective
investigations.

"The Committee of Ministers asked the Bulgarian authorities to
regularly provide information on their work concerning the draft
 bill for the envisaged constitutional reforms and any other
relevant draft legislative or constitutional reforms.

"It decided to resume its consideration of this group of cases
at its March 2021 meeting on the implementation of ECHR
judgments, at the latest," the Committee of Ministers said.
NV/DD