Leading Bulgarian judges have slammed back the police and prosecution in the heated debate after the release of 4 of the 5 alleged paid assassins busted in the recent Operation “Killers”.

“One of the persons was charged with helping another person to help a third person to commit an assassination. This is legally impossible! You are either a killer, or an accomplice, there is no way one could be an accomplice of an accomplice,” said judge Valya Rushanova, who has worked at the Sofia Appellate Court for 15 years, in an interview for the bTV channel over Tuesday’s decisions of the same court to release the suspects in two much advertised recent police operations - “Killers” and “All Trumps”.

Tuesday’s decisions of the Sofia Appellate Court generated a storm of protests and indignation on part of the Bulgarian Prime Minister, Interior Minister, senior policemen and prosecutors fueling further the months-long heated exchange of criticism between the executive branch and the judiciary about who is responsible for Bulgaria’s problems with organized crime and corruption.

Earlier on Tuesday, Bulgaria’s Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov declared that the court decision to release on bail the suspected killers meant that the mafia controlled the Bulgarian state.

Bulgarian PM Borisov said all evidence submitted to the Bulgarian courts with respect to the two cases are being translated into English and will be submitted for assessment by Europol and FBI.

Another judge from the Sofia Appellate Court with over 15 years of experience, Maria Miteva, is quoted as pointing out that the files with evidence supplied by the Interior Ministry contained “operational information” about conversations and connections between the suspected assassins which is no legal evidence under the Bulgarian evidence. “No Bulgarian citizen can be kept in jail without proofs,” Miteva told bTV.

A third judge from the same court – Hristina Mihova – is quoted as saying that the police failed to find the weapon with which the murder of controversial football club president Yuriy Galev was committed.

The Killers gang – including the president of the Bulgarian Sumo Federation Dimitar Stoyanov, aka The Chieftain – was arrested in connection with Galev’s murder committed in June 2010 but is also believed to have been responsible for a number of other assassinations and plots – including one against the life of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov.

Mihova, a judge with 18 years of experience who over the last few months confirmed the detention behind bars of former secret agent Aleksei Petrov, a man arrested in the so called Special Operation Octopus, has also slammed the investigators for failing to inspect the fired cartridges that they found or failing to conduct any tests of any biological materials.

All three judges believe that there cannot be any mafia organizations in Bulgaria.

“From the point of view of the court, there could be talk of mafia or an organized crime group only if the Supreme Court of Cassation confirms a sentence against at least three persons for assassinations, drug dealing, or something of the sort,” says Judge Valya Rushanova.

“I think there can be no mafia in Bulgaria because there are no such resources in Bulgaria. We are an extremely small country with a very contradictory people which cannot get to have 4 persons with the same opinion,” states Judge Miteva.

“We are part of the state and that is why we don’t agree with the statement of Interior Minister Tsvetanov that the state cannot cope with the judiciary. The judiciary is part of the state. It is not just the executive that is the state. Perhaps this is not clear to the minister,” commented Judge Mihova.

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