site.btaJustice Minister on High-profile Murder Case Linked to Influence Trading in Judiciary

Justice Minister Atanas Slavov insists on an effective investigation into the murder of Martin Bozhanov, which will establish who the perpetrators are, to what extent in the judiciary these dependencies have reached, who the magistrates are that have allowed themselves, violating their oath and their dignity and professional honour, to fall into such dependencies. Speaking to bTV Sunday evening, Slavov said that for every magistrate who is found to be on the list attendees of this club (a private club linked to Bozhanov), for everyone for whom there is evidence that they used some kind of protection or used his institutional position as a form of pressure and racketeering, he will propose disciplinary proceedings and propose to the relevant authority their dismissal. 

The Minister recalled that in 2023, during a hearing at the Supreme Judicial Council on the "Eight Dwarfs" case [concerning company theft and trading in influence case, involving members of the judiciary], he had asked for the case of Martin Bozhanov to be clarified in connection with a list titled by the Anti-Corruption Fund as a "quick control list". 

It is important in this case that no information is made public on which there is no institutional action, the Minister added. 

It is important that a commission is set up in Parliament to investigate this case, Atanas Slavov added. He recalled that at the beginning of the of the 49th National Assembly, he had proposed legislative changes to the Criminal Procedure Code, which would oblige the prosecutor's office to look into cases of high public interest, on which information had already been publicly leaked, and provide further information Parliament. In this way, according to Slavov, the prosecution service's monopoly on investigative secrecy could be lifted.

Atanas Slavov responded to the criticism of President Rumen Radev, who said earlier on Sunday that "All the talk about constitutional reform and the rule of law clashes with the reality in which Bozhanov could have been a broker between the mafia and the judiciary only with political protection," Slavov recalled that more than half the time since 2021 has been ruled by caretaker governments [appointed by the President]. Moreover, the changes to the Constitution are only the beginning of the judicial reform, with the crucial phase being the changes to the Judiciary Act and the election of the new bodies in the system.