There is no efficient justice in Bulgaria, there are attempts at effective justice, not effective, but effective – prosecutorial.
This was stated on the show “The Day” by Veselin Dremdzhiev, lawyer Velislav Velichkov from the initiative “Justice for Everyone”, in a conversation about the arrests of the former mayor of the “Mladost” district in Sofia, Desislava Ivancheva, and the mayor of Varna, Blagomir Kotsev.
“This is prosecutorial justice. People are detained like in an American mafia movie, then arrested like in a Soviet movie from the time of socialism, taken to pre-trial detention, kept there without a sentence for months, they are led away tied up, handcuffed behind their backs, the prosecutor’s office declares them criminals, trials are underway that create the impression that a higher level of justice is being administered, and in the end everything quiets down,” he said.
He described the prosecutors and investigative bodies from the Anti-Corruption Commission as “a well-oiled machine for repression.”
“This machine does everything possible to exercise repression in the pre-trial phase, because in 90% of cases the convictions fail miserably. The only exceptions are the mayor of “Mladost” – Ivancheva and Petrova, who received an effective sentence in all three instances for a 56,000 euro bribe requested but not received. The second instance said – received, but did not reduce the punishment and finally in the Supreme Court they had to withdraw an entire panel of three judges to recuse themselves so that Judge Spas Ivanchev could come and sentence Ivancheva,” Velichkov added.
The other problem that Velichkov sees and that the EC tells us about is with the judges, who “do not depend only on themselves, because they are seconded”.
The lawyer believes that the judges who came from the provinces are tempted by the opportunity to move their families to the capital and are ready to do anything for this. The seconded specialized judges are incompetent, incompetent and ready to serve orders, Velichkov also said in the program.
