Seven years after the now-defunct Special Prosecutor’s Office launched criminal proceedings against former Dryanovo mayor Miroslav Semov, it is still unclear whether Semov is guilty or innocent in the investigation into alleged mismanagement. The reason is that the Gabrovo District Prosecutor’s Office has terminated the criminal proceedings four times in succession, even though on three occasions the court overturned the prosecutors’ decisions as unlawful and insufficiently substantiated.
The latest decision terminating the proceedings was issued on 12 June this year. It is the fourth such decision to be challenged by Dryanovo Municipality. As of the publication of this report, however, no court case had yet been opened at the Gabrovo District Court, the municipality told “Za Istinata” in response to questions.
No response from the prosecution service
Meanwhile, Dryanovo Municipality has requested the recusal of the entire Gabrovo District Prosecutor’s Office “in order to ensure an impartial resolution” of the continuing exchange of prosecutorial decisions to terminate the criminal proceedings against Semov and court rulings overturning all of them.
The municipality has also filed a report with the Inspectorate of the Supreme Judicial Council and asked the acting Prosecutor General to supervise the case.
As of the publication of this report, the municipality had received no response either to its request for recusals or to its reports to the competent authorities.
A standoff between the court and the prosecution
The criminal investigation against the former Dryanovo mayor was opened in 2019. In 2022, shortly before the Special Prosecutor’s Office was abolished, prosecutors charged him with mismanagement that allegedly caused BGN 360,000 in damage to the municipality.
The losses identified by the prosecution during the pre-trial investigation stemmed from a failed Higher College of Biodynamic Agriculture that never even began operating.
In November 2022, the Gabrovo District Prosecutor’s Office terminated the criminal proceedings against Semov.
The Gabrovo District Court, however, overturned the decision and returned the case to the prosecution service for a new ruling. The decision was subsequently upheld by the Court of Appeal in Veliko Tarnovo.
Exactly the same sequence was repeated in September 2023 and September 2024.
The court finds violations, but the judicial inspectorate does not
After the court had returned the case to the prosecution three times with specific instructions, which were apparently not followed, and each new prosecutorial decision essentially repeated its predecessor, Dryanovo Municipality requested the recusal of the entire prosecutorial team.
The Inspectorate of the Supreme Judicial Council was also alerted, but it found no violations in the work of the supervising prosecutor.
The result was that in June 2026, the same prosecutor terminated the proceedings against the former Dryanovo mayor for a fourth time, and Dryanovo Municipality once again appealed the decision in court.
The three court rulings issued so far reveal how difficult it has been for the judiciary to compel the prosecution service to comply with the law.
The court “can find no words or way”
“Despite the efforts made, the present judicial panel can find no words, means or approach with which to explain more clearly the detailed instructions given twice regarding the application of the law,” the court wrote in its December 2024 ruling.
That ruling was the third and largely repeated the previous two, in addition to two decisions by the Court of Appeal in Veliko Tarnovo.
“Under these circumstances, there is no other option but for the same termination decision to be overturned for a third time, as the same instructions have once again not been followed,” the court stated.
It stressed that “the proper application of the law comes down solely to compliance with the court’s instructions”.
Whether a fourth court ruling will once again demonstrate the judiciary’s inability to compel the prosecution service to properly justify its decisions to terminate the proceedings against the former Dryanovo mayor remains to be seen.
For now, there is still no court case.
