Bulgarian magistrates from all over the country have risen against the dismissal of Judge Miroslava Todorova on disciplinary grounds, defining the step as a repressive measure targeting a critical voice.

Miroslava Todorova, Chair of the Bulgarian Judges Association and judge at the Sofia City Court, was dismissed Thursday by the Supreme Judicial Council (VSS) over the unreasonable delay of proceedings.

A few hours after the announcement of the disciplinary penalty, judges from the Sofia City Court, the Sofia Regional Court, the Sofia Appellate Court and the Supreme Court of Cassation distributed a statement urging their colleagues from all over the country to postpone the hearings scheduled for Friday to attend a protest planned for 10 a.m. in front of the VSS headquarters in Sofia.

Friday's rally in support of the newly dismissed judge is already on Facebook, the event being titled "Protest against the attempts of the VSS to self-administer justice against Judge Todorova."

Right after the news about Todorova's dismissal came out, young judges from the courts in Vratsa, Vidin, Smolyan, Svishtov, Gabrovo, Silistra, Lovech and Lukovit came up with a statement of support.

The young magistrates argued that the harshest disciplinary penalty had been imposed after repressive proceedings and amid a total lack of transparency.

The junior judges emphasized that they had all been trained by Todorova at the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), where they got the chance to know her as a judge with in-depth knowledge of the law, a person of firm character and a specialist who would never turn down requests for professional or ethical advice

Meanwhile, the open letter distributed by the Sofia City Court, the Sofia Regional Court, the Sofia Appellate Court and the Supreme Court of Cassation defined Todorova's dismissal as yet another example of "the flawed and unpredictable activity of the VSS", which had yet again demonstrated its dependence on  external interests, its unscrupulousness and its double standards.

The Sofia-based magistrates noted that Todorova had been the only Bulgarian judge dismissed over three delayed rulings.

Judge Miroslava Todorova gained reputation as the strongest critic of the Supreme Judicial Council and Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov.

She filed a libel lawsuit against Tsvetanov with the Sofia Regional Court on February 06.

The step was triggered by two consecutive interviews of the Interior Minister in which he accused her of incompetence and of patronizing organized crime because of the delayed presentation of the written motives to an eight-year jail sentence handed down to drug lord Vasil Manikatov.

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.

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