Miroslava Todorova, Chair of the Bulgarian Judges Association (BJA) and judge at the Sofia City Court (SCC), has filed a libel lawsuit against Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov over a series of accusations leveled by him on TV.

In a series of media appearances three weeks ago, Tsvetanov claimed that Todorova was incompetent in doing her job and was patronizing the mafia.

He argued that she had delayed the issuing of written motives for verdicts against high-profile criminals, including drug lord Vasil Manikatov.

Todorova countered the accusations by saying that the delay had not allowed anybody to evade justice because the offender had been behind bars during the period.

She further threatened to file a libel lawsuit against the Interior Minister.

Tsvetanov's accusations caused the indignation of three former BJA Chairs, who insisted that the Chief Prosecutor check the credibility of the Interior Minister's assertions.

They went on to inquire whether Tsvetanov had notified the prosecution if he was aware of any wrongdoing on the part of Miroslava Todorova.

Chief Prosecutor Boris Velchev, however, refused to interfere in the Tsvetanov vs judiciary dispute by saying that the prosecuting authority's job was to check facts, not allegations.

Meanwhile, judges from the Penal Division of the Sofia City Court (SCC) came up with a statement in support of Todorova.

"We believe that by declaring our support for Judge Todorova we are backing the idea for a constructive change in the judiciary - a system created to function on the basis of impartiality and professionalism," SCC staff wrote.

On 05 February, Tsvetanov voiced new accusations against Todorova, saying that she had blocked a trial for the rape of two girls.

One day later, SCC magistrates came up with a statement refuting Tsvetanov's claims

The SCC press release explained that the case in question involved a robbery, not a rape, and the unreasonable delay had been caused by the prosecutor, not by the judge.

Todorova filed a libel complaint with the Sofia Regional Court on February 06.

The case has been assigned to a court panel but the magistrates have asked the Supreme Court of Cassation (VKS) to determine which court should try the case.

Todorova is not seeking a monetary award and if the Interior Minister is found guilty, he will be penalized with a public reprimand and a fine of BGN 5000-15000 which will go into the state coffers.

According to Todorova's complaint, Tsvetanov voiced untrue and defamatory allegations concerning her work as a judge and as a BJA Chair.

Tsvetanov's words, said on bTV in response to a question regarding his previous statements, are "There are approaches applied in the judiciary by like-minded judges who are actually not in the service of society, we, the people who keep paying our taxes to support the judiciary, but rather in the service of organized crime".

A trial date is yet to be set by the Sofia Regional Court.

In the meantime, Prime Minister Boyko Borisov admitted that one of the reasons for the latest critical report on Bulgaria's progress under the Co-operation and Verification Mechanism ("CVM") was Tsvetanov's rants against the judicial system.

Borisov was adamant that the Interior Minister had had no right to call judges mafiosos and stressed that he had asked Tsvetanov to put an end to the conflict.

Tsvetanov, however, has not quite complied with the orders, as he continued to tell journalists about "examples" of "unreasonably" released criminals or deliberately protracted trials or motives. 

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