Prosecution: Bulgarian Tainted Judge under Investigation

The Prosecutor's Office in Bulgarian capital Sofia has confirmed that there is an investigation launched against juge Veneta Markovska, last week elected by Parliament to become constitutional judge.

Markovska's nomination and then election for one of Parliament's two candidates to serve on Bulgaria's Constitutional Court raised controversy after information was leaked that she had attempted to use her influence to pressure the Ministry of Interior to suppress an investigation.

This led to the European Commission issuing a warning it could publish an emergency report for Bulgaria on the so-called Co-Operation and Verification Mechanism for Corruption and Organized Crime.

Bulgarian Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee chair Iskra Fidosova sent a letter of explanation to the EC, and PM Boyko Borisov was initially dismissive of the Commission's warning.

But Monday Borisov "advised" Markovska to resign from being a constitutional judge due to the doubts cast on her integrity.

On her part, Veneta Markovska has denied all accusations of attempting to illicitly use her influence, albeit without failing to produce a coherent alternative narrative regarding the events.

The investigation at the Sofia Prosecutor's Office relates to a signal about Markovska using documents with untrue content, allegedly to fire an investigative officer.

In her explanations last week, she claimed there are no investigations whatsoever against her.

At present, Veneta Markovska serves as a vice-chair of Bulgaria's Supreme Administrative Court.