Bulgaria's Supreme Judicial Council (VSS) will open disciplinary action against Sofia City Court (SCC) judge Maria Georgieva, said Petar Stoyanov, Chair of the VSS Disciplinary Committee.

Last week, the VSS Inspectorate proposed that the toughest disciplinary penalty, dismissal, be imposed on Georgieva.

The SCC judge was checked on the basis of 10 separate tip-offs received by the Inspectorate in the period 2010-August 2011, as well as publications in the media.

The probe revealed violations in the opening, handling and closing of civil trials and injunction proceedings for 2011.

The proposal of the VSS Inspectorate was made public one day after it emerged that she had issued a decision authorizing the company of Hristo Grozev, BG Privatinvest GmbH, to enter the managing bodies of Bulgarian mass-circulation dailies 24 Hours Daily and Trud daily as an ad hoc representative.

At its Tuesday session, the VSS Disciplinary Committee found the proposal to be in compliance with the law.

The issue of taking disciplinary action against Georgieva will be included in the agenda of Thursday's session of VSS.

A disciplinary panel to try the case will be appointed at the October 27 VSS meeting and a substantive hearing is to be held within 20 days.

The proposal must be sent to the Georgieva, who will have a 7-day period to raise an objection, to secure defenders and to call for new evidence.

Dismissal is the toughest penalty that can be imposed on a magistrate.

In the course of the proceedings, VSS members will hear Georgieva's statement and collect all data relevant to the signals received against her.

After the end of the disciplinary proceedings, the magistrates will vote on whether or not to penalize the judge and on the extent of the penalty.

For more details on the scandal involving the 24 Hours and Trud dailies READ HERE: