"This composition of the SJC, with few exceptions, has proven that it serves political-conjunctural factors, because Ivan Geshev was not released for objectively ascertainable violations, but for a political remark. We saw that this SJC enjoys certain political influences".
This is what Ivan Bregov - a legal expert at the Institute for Market Economy - told the BNR.
The need for change in the judicial system has been urgent for more than two decades, he pointed out, adding that the problem is not urgent, but already chronic.
"We are not achieving fundamental results, but mostly dealing with legislation that we either do not improve well or do not implement well.
Bregov does not agree that in this case the legislative power somehow interferes with the judicial power. According to him, the legislation will soon be refined, and the occasion is specifically the procedure for Borislav Sarafov. "This is a political fact and it should be transferred to the territory of politics in the National Assembly,", he believes.
In the show "Sunday 150" the expert noted the "Revival" bill, according to which the SJC can open a procedure for the election of the chief prosecutor only within the regular term for which he was elected. According to him, this is one of the permissions:
"It is a little controversial in nature, but it can achieve its goals. I take it critically, but it's still some kind of decision.
PP-DB have decided not to make a targeted bill to stop Sarafov, and their bill has several achievements, Bregov pointed out. According to him, they have set criteria by which the presidents of the supreme courts will be elected, so that there is a majority in the judicial collegium of the SJC. si, which we don't have at this stage. And another - what to do in the event that the chosen candidate is proposed and the president does not appoint him, added the legal expert and explained that a two-month period is provided for the SJC to repeat the procedure. According to him, the other important thing in the texts of the PP-DB is that persons who are temporarily performing this position cannot be candidates or nominees. According to him, this is a good resolution that does not contradict fundamental principles and the legislation is not used for the specific case, but provides the desired clarity.
Politics interferes with the independent judiciary when it makes appointments that contradict the objectively established criteria, comments Ivan Bregov.
The white swallows in justice have disappeared, he stated. According to him, the resistance forces reach the corridors of the prosecutor's office the most. This is because there is no good environment - who will protect ordinary prosecutors, the expert believes. According to him, there is still a proactive community among the judges.
"Both in the court and in the prosecutor's office, there are people who are critical of what is happening there, but too politicized influences have been crushing this environment for more than 10 years. People who want to assert their independence within the system and highlight the system's flaws remain alone and unsupported. "No one would attack in this way," he explained.
According to Ivan Bregov, there is a lot to be done constitutionally. "The Sixth Amendment to the Constitution has been unfairly maligned in the ``Judiciary'' chapter. It had its deficits, but in other directions. We have never been critical of the specific proposals in Chapter 6. They failed to be imposed in their entirety, and they affirmed international standards and recommendations for 25 years to Bulgaria," he specified.
In his words, attention should be paid to competitions, business trips, certification and the budget of the judiciary, which are problems that can be solved at the legal level.
Bregov also noted that we do not have persons from the highest levels of power who have been convicted. According to him, the lack of convictions and effective sentences is the biggest criterion for the work of both the court and the prosecutor's office.