Sofia Courts of Justice Closed after Bomb Tip-off

Politics | March 27, 2003, Thursday // 00:00

Sofia Courts of Justice and Sofia District Prosecutor's Office will be closed every time a bomb tip-off is received, it was announced March 27.

The new rule was introduced after a tip-off for a bomb planted at Sofia Courts of Justice was received shortly after 9 am on March 27.

The building, which houses Sofia Court of Appeals, Supreme Cassation Prosecutor's Office, the Supreme Cassation Court and Sofia City Court, has been closed. A team of the Interior Ministry is currently searching the building for explosives.

In similar cases so far Ivan Grigorov, chairman of the Supreme Cassation Court, used to sign a protocol, under which work was resumed one hour later.

Following the incident March 27, Grigorov said he refuses to take such a heavy responsibility any longer.

The Supreme Judicial Council descried the accident as an act of terrorism, a result of the constantly mounting tension against the judicial system. The magistrates called for an urgent meeting with the Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg, Justice Minister Stankov and Interior Minister Petkanov for beefing up security at judicial buildings.

Two days earlier a hand-made explosive went off in the building of the district prosecutor's office in Sofia. There were no wounded. Windows on the first and second floors of the building at Pozitano street were broken.

"This is an act of crime that aims at destabilizing the work of the prosecuting authorities," Supreme Cassation Prosecutor's Office spokesman Nikolay Markov told the Bulgarian News Agency.

On March 27 Justice Minister Anton Stankov said he still has no additional information about the explosion at the district prosecutor's office in Sofia.

In the opinion of Minister Stankov the incumbents are the first Bulgarian government to take concrete measures for defending the magistrates.

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