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The Head of the Sofia Appellate Court, Veselin Pengezov, enters the VSS building to be questioned over his alleged involvement in the real estate scandal. Photo by BGNES
Bulgaria's Judicial Inspectorate began a probe of the work of the Supreme Prosecutor's Office of Cassations and the Prosecutor's Offices in the Black Sea city of Burgas in the latest scandal that is shaking the country's judicial system.
The Inspectorate is also probing the decision of the Supreme Judicial Council (VSS) to temporarily appoint Prosecutor, Katya Evtimova, as head of the Prosecutor's Office in the beach resort town of Tsarevo.
Evtimova's name has been tangled in the scandal, but this did not stop VSS from choosing her for the high-ranking post. She, allegedly, put on hold, in February 2010, investigations against judges who received municipal lands after claiming to be on welfare.
The scandal broke after an investigative report of the Bulgarian weekly “Kapital” revealed that three senior judges from the Supreme Administrative Court (VAS) helped close relatives to obtain beach-front real estate property in Primorsko thanks to their acquired status of people on social benefits.
“Kapital” wrote how Denitsa Urumova, who is a Junior Judge at the Blagoevgrad District Court, and daughter of the VAS judge, Nikolay Urumov, is building a hotel in Primorsko, for which she obtained the construction permit by pretending to be on welfare.
The father, Nikolay Urumov, is probed for bribery and was dismissed as the head of the Third Department of VAS. The VAS Chair, Konstantin Penchev, also fired the other two VAS judges involved in the scandal: Panayot Genkov was removed from office as the Head of the “First A” Department of VAS; and Judge Andrey Ikonomov was fired from the head position of the Fifth Department of VAS.
In addition, relatives of the former Appellate Prosecutor of Burgas, Yordan Ivanov, and of the Head of the Sofia Appellate Court, Veselin Pengezov, have also received building permits.
In addition to Evtimova, the probes are against all of the above, excluding Yordan Ivanov, because he is no longer an employee of the Court.
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