Bulgarian MPs Mull New Ad-Hoc Committee for Ex VP's Pardons

Politics » DOMESTIC | April 12, 2012, Thursday // 12:28
Bulgaria: Bulgarian MPs Mull New Ad-Hoc Committee for Ex VP's Pardons Yane Yanev has said that the efforts to set up a new ad-hoc committee examining activities of ex President and Vice President, Parvanov and Marin, will be renewed after the Easter recess. Photo by BGNES

Center-right ruling party GERB and the marginal conservative Order, Law and Justice (RZS) party plan to submit a new draft decision for an ad-hoc committee probing activities of the former President and Vice President, Parvanov and Marin, after the Easter parliamentary recess.

Yanev announced the plans on Thursday, following Wednesday's Decision #6 of the Constitutional Court (KS).

The KS ruled unconstitutional the ad-hoc committee chaired by Yanev that had been tasked with investigating the legal grounds, the facts and the circumstances surrounding the granting of pardons, the cancellation of uncollectible debts to the state and the and the granting, restoration and withdrawal of Bulgarian citizenship during the two terms in office of President Georgi Parvanov and Vice President Angel Marin (January 22, 2002 – January 22, 2012).

The RZS leader specified that the new ad-hoc committee would examine the work of the public officials from the executive branch in connection with the presidential decrees granting pardons, cancelling uncollectible debts or granting, restoring or withdrawing Bulgarian citizenship.

This would make the ad-hoc committee fully compatible with the decision of KS, Yanev argued, adding that it would confirm the principle of parliamentary control over the executive.

Yanev explained that the new unit would once again handle the decrees issued during the two terms in office of Parvanov and Marin but noted that the research could go back even further.

GERB MP Yuliana Koleva concluded that the work of the ad-hoc committee was expected to lead to a proposal for legal amendments regulating the procedure for granting pardons.

The RZS leader hinted that Constitutional Judges Evgeni Tanchev, Plamen Kirov and Dimitar Tokushev, who had been legal advisors to President Parvanov, should have self-recused from the case examining the ad-hoc committee.

Yanev went on to recommend the introduction of mandatory promulgation of presidential pardon decrees.

On Wednesday, the KS declared unconstitutional the ad-hoc committee set up to examine activities of former President and Vice President Georgi Parvanov – Angel Marin.

The magistrates declared that the reasons for granting a pardon were determined by the President or Vice President and it was unacceptable to ask for the motives behind their decisions.

They argued that the promulgated presidential decrees granting a pardon were not subject to review by another state body.

The Constitutional Judges noted that the second term in office of Parvanov and Marin, who had been reelected, had started on the very same day the previous term in office expired, meaning that no second decree by Parvanov was necessary to authorize Marin for the activities he performed during the first five years.

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Tags: Yane Yanev, RZS, GERB, ruling party, pardons, Angel Marin, Georgi Parvanov, Bulgarian President, decree, Constitutional Court, Vice President, citizenship

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