Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov has rejected having a personal conflict with Miroslava Todorova, Chair of the Bulgarian Judges Association and Judge at the Sofia City Court, who was dismissed Thursday.

"I have always been led by justice and public interest and I do not believe that I need to comment on the case with Miroslava Todorova – there is the Supreme Judicial Council (VSS) and the competent authorities for that purpose," Tsvetanov stated late on Thursday.

Bulgaria's Interior Minister claimed that he had mentioned Todorova's name in relation to letters he had received from "injured parties" and firmly rejected allegations of a personal conflict with the dismissed judge.

Responding to accusations that center-right ruling party GERB was interfering in the work of the judiciary and the VSS, Tsvetanov reminded that the current VSS panel had been appointed by the 40th, not the 41st National Assembly.

Judge Miroslava Todorova, who gained reputation as the strongest critic of the Supreme Judicial Council and Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov, was dismissed Thursday by the VSS on disciplinary grounds (unreasonable delay of proceedings).

Todorova filed a libel lawsuit against Tsvetanov with the Sofia Regional Court in the beginning of February, after 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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