Bulgaria Justice Minister: Penal Code Impedes Solving Crimes

Politics » DOMESTIC | January 27, 2010, Wednesday // 11:56
Bulgaria Justice Minister: Penal Code Impedes Solving Crimes: Bulgaria Justice Minister: Penal Code Impedes Solving Crimes Bulgaria's Justice Minister, Margarita Popova, says that the old NPK is too formal and includes inadequate solutions to fight corruption and organized crime. Photo by BNGES

The police needs to be included in the process of the court’s investigation, Bulgaria's Justice Minister, Margarita Popova insists.

Popova spoke before the Members of the Parliament Wednesday during the first reading of the proposed amendments of Bulgaria’s Penal Code (NPK).

The right-wing Blue Coalition between the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) and Democrats for Strong Bulgaria (DSB) already declared they will not support the amendments since no one attempted to discuss the changes with them and they do not agree with those changes anyway.

Popova further says that the old NPK is too formal and includes inadequate solutions to fight corruption and organized crime, which imposes the urgent need of amendments.

“Right now NPK has too many prohibitions and they do not give the authorities any opportunity to be successful in fighting crime. This why we deem unreasonable to ban the police from being included in the probe of serious crimes and we want this ban revoked,” Popova told the MPs.

The Justice Ministry is requesting granting rights to policemen and military employees, who have arrived first at the crime scene, to be able to testify before the judge while evidence collected during preliminary investigation to be used in court.

The amendments further include a ban on calling minor witnesses to testify in the courtroom. Their testimony will be instead read to the magistrates.

Another change is the appointment of a stand in defense council to speed up the trial procedure.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!

Domestic » Be a reporter: Write and send your article
Tags: NPK, penal code, Margarita Popova

Advertisement
Advertisement
Bulgaria news Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency - www.sofianewsagency.com) is unique with being a real time news provider in English that informs its readers about the latest Bulgarian news. The editorial staff also publishes a daily online newspaper "Sofia Morning News." Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency - www.sofianewsagency.com) and Sofia Morning News publish the latest economic, political and cultural news that take place in Bulgaria. Foreign media analysis on Bulgaria and World News in Brief are also part of the web site and the online newspaper. News Bulgaria