Plovdiv Magistrates Outraged by Unfair Job Assessment

Sixty four magistrates from the Plovdiv Regional Court have sent an unprecedented letter to the Supreme Judicial Council, VSS, in connection with recent media publications about their work.

The judges oppose in outrage media claims that the Plovdiv Court has the strongest concentration of violations of human rights of freedom and due process, leading to the majority of cases against Bulgaria to be filed with the Strasbourg Human Rights Court due to the Plovdiv Court rules.

They further reject statements about them working in a feudal environment or in military barracks, stressing the insults stem from the procedure for the election of the country's new Chief Prosecutor.

The first candidate for the post to be nominated was precisely Sotir Tsatsarov, Chairman of the Plovdiv Regional Court.

The judges say they do not oppose the freedom of press and are not blaming the media, stressing there was one main source of such negativity – an unnamed law office in Plovdiv with "serious interests in criminal verdicts."

The authors of the letter are asking VSS to assess their work and state publically their position on the issues.

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