A judge who has not specialized in criminal law has been said to approve around 3/4 of the requests for the deployment of special surveillance devices submitted with the Sofia City Court (SCC).

An inquiry of Bulgarian news portal Mediapool has shown that SCC Chair Vladimira Yaneva, whose appointment raised eyebrows in the judiciary and has still not been conformed legal by the Supreme Administrative Court (VAS), prefers to delegate the responsibility for the authorization of surveillance equipment.

According to unconfirmed information, the task has to a large extent been shifted to Yaneva's deputy and head of the SCC's Administrative Division, Nikolay Dimov.

Statistics presented to Mediapool under the Access to Public Information Act shows that Yaneva signed a total of 488 permits for special surveillance devices in the period June 01 - October 14, or an average of 5 permits per day.

At the same time, Nikolay Dimov issued a total of 1250 permits, or an average of 15 permits per day, in the period June 01 - September 10.

The findings come against a backdrop of numerous scandals triggered by lax control over wiretapping.

Bulgaria's Parliamentary Subcommittee for Special Surveillance Devices Control has repeatedly called on courts to tighten their criteria for granting permits for the deployment of this method of investigation.

Under Bulgarian legislation, the deployment of surveillance equipment is allowed only if all other traditional methods of investigation have been exhausted.

The judge tasked with issuing the premit must determine if the the prosecution office and the investigating authorities have no other options for collecting evidence.

At SCC, however, the appraisal is carried out by a judge who is not an expert on criminal law, Mediapool argues, adding that this explains findings that a total of 4288 wiretap authorizations and only 2 rejections were issued in the period January - mid-September 2011.

In the beginning of October, Vladimira Yaneva got involved into a new scandal as Capital weekly published an article claiming that she had signed twice more wiretap permits than her predecessors.

The publication stated that the SCC Chair had approved a total of 2733 permits, or slightly over 30 per day, since assuming office.

A follow-up statement of SCC's press office specified that she had actually issued only 1748 authorizations for the use of surveillance equipment in the period, or about 20 per day.

Approached by Mediapool for statistics on the matter, Vladimira Yaneva, a criminal judge, responded that she had only signed 488 permits for her 97 days on the job.

Yaneva was reported to have spent a total of 29 working days in office so far, the rest being time spent on a leave of absence or on a sick leave.

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