site.btaSupreme Bar Council Calls on Prosecution Service to Stop Investigating Constitutional Court

The Supreme Bar Council (SBC) Tuesday issued a position calling on the prosecution service to immediately stop its investigative actions into the activity of the Constitutional Court and to issue an institutional apology to the judges and Bulgarian society for the hasty and rash actions of the Sofia City Prosecution Office (SCPO). On its website, the SBC expresses a firm position against the prosecuting magistracy's check and request for documents related to the Constitutional Court's case over the lawfulness of the October 2024 parliamentary elections.

Earlier on Tuesday, the prosecution service said the Sofia City Prosecution Office is conducting a check in connection with information that ballots are missing from the October 2024 elections. The prosecutors’ case file was instituted on March 7, acting on an alert from Information Services, the election services provider. In this relation, the SCPO has sent a request to the Constitutional Court to provide a number of documents in connection with the elections case, opened in November 2024 after several parties challenged the lawfulness of the elections. In its reply to the SCPO, the Constitutional Court said that in a constitutional case that is not yet disposed of, the Court is not bound to provide the documents specified by the prosecution office.

The SBR also said in its position that the Constitutional Court is an independent body established under the Constitution and is the only body with the power to determine the lawfulness of the parliamentary elections. Therefore, no actions or ruling of the Court is subject to any kind of assessment or control, least of all by the prosecution service. The prosecuting magistracy's actions, practically directed against the Constitutional Court's powers, are an inadmissible interference in the Court's work that cannot be neglected, the SBR said.