The Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) unanimously elected Galina Zakharova chairwoman of the Supreme Court of Cassation (SCC) by 20 votes to none. She was the only candidate for the post and was nominated by the judges. Zaharova became the first woman president in the history of the court. After 7 hours of hearings, the Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev, the Chairman of the Supreme Administrative Court Georgi Cholakov, and Lozan Panov himself, whose post Zakharova will take over in February, spoke positively about Zakharova.

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"The place of the prosecution and the investigation is in the judiciary branch," Zakharova said during her hearing before the SJC. She was asked questions by Chief Prosecutor Ivan Geshev and Council member Stefan Petrov. According to her, restricting the rights of investigators is not a well-thought-out change.

Asked by Kalina Chapkanova whether the SJC should be acting intermittently, Zakharova said it was good to consider the pros and cons of one solution or another.

The topic of communication between judges and other authorities was raised by Daniela Marcheva. In this regard, Zakharova said that in a state governed by the rule of law, it is inadmissible for the court to encapsulate and dedicate itself only to direct judicial activity.

"In The Supreme Court of Cassation the has not been made an in-depth study of the workload of judges," Zaharova said in response to a question from Atanaska Disheva, adding that in some cases civil cases before the SJC were many times higher than criminal ones.

/Nova

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