Sofia City Prosecutor May Face Disciplinary Proceedings

Bulgaria's Chief Prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov has submitted a proposal with the Supreme Judicial Council (VSS) for initiating disciplinary proceedings against Sofia City Prosecutor Nikolay Kokinov over a breach of the system for random assignment of lawsuits.

Tsatsarov told journalists Thursday that the disciplinary proceedings had been proposed due to the fact that prosecutor Georgi Tafrov had been assigned to a case against officials of the National Electricity Company (NEK) without using the random case assignment system.

In his Thursday statement, Tsatsarov made clear that NEK had sustained damages of BGN 90 M as a result of sales of electricity to a Swiss company at lowered prices.

Kokinov has argued that the case was assigned to Tafrov on the instructions of Hristo Gramatikov from the Supreme Prosecutor's Office of Cassation (VKS).

Gramatikov, however, has rejected such claims.