Bulgaria Sets Timeline for Selecting New Chief Prosecutor
The current Supreme Judicial Council of Bulgaria has been operating with an expired mandate for two years
Politics | September 9, 2024, Monday // 14:03
Wiretapping Permits Issued by Bulgarian Court Quadruple After Controversial Appointment
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The appointment of Vladimira Yaneva as SCC Chair has brought about a surge in authorized wiretapping. Photo by BGNES
A follow-up press release of SCC claimed that SCC ChairYaneva had issued a total of 1748 permits for the use of special surveillance devices in the period June 01, 2011 to September 10, 2011.
SCC's press office confirmed that Velichka Tsanova, then acting SCC Chair, had approved 1455 wiretap requests in the period November 22, 2010 to June 01, 2011.
Vladimira Yaneva was appointed SCC Chair in end-May.
Yaneva, boasting a close family friendship with Interior Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov, won against Velichka Tsanova with 18-5 votes in a re-vote.
Yaneva triumphed despite her 8 years of experience as a judge, 4 of which have been spent on maternal leave.
The dubious appointment triggered tensions in the judiciary, which resulted in two protest resignations of members of the Supreme Judicial Council (VSS) and a boycott of the selection of their replacements.
At the same time, two parallel protest campaigns urging the "totally discredited" VSS to collectively resign were organized by the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee and by the bivol.bg website for investigative journalism.
Yaneva was also accused of committing conflict of interest in the embezzlement trial against the former executives of the municipal real estate company Sofiyski Imoti.
In May 2002, the current SCC Chair, who had just been appointed Junior Judge, sealed a contract for the purchase of two pieces of property from Sofiyski Imoti as a proxy for a company owned by her father.
Eight years later, Yaneva was assigned the embezzlement trial against the management of the municipal real estate company, delaying her pronouncement for several months and eventually calling the case closed and returning it to the Prosecutor's Office.
Bulgaria's newly functional Commission for Prevention and Ascertainment of Conflict of Interest, however, announced in end-August 2011 that the SCC head had not committed any breach of the Conflict of Interest Prevention and Ascertainment Act.
Yaneva's appointment as a SCC Chair was appealed by her main rival, Judge Velichka Tsanova, and the case is yet to be decided by the Supreme Administrative Court (VAS).
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