Bulgarian President Appoints Chief Prosecutor as Constitutional Judge

Politics » DOMESTIC | October 31, 2012, Wednesday // 16:35
Bulgarian President Appoints Chief Prosecutor for Constitutional Judge: Bulgarian President Appoints Chief Prosecutor as Constitutional Judge Outgoing Bulgarian Chief Prosecutor, Boris Velchev, now has a new job as constitutional judge. Photo by BGNES

Bulgarian President, Rosen Plevneliev, issued Wednesday a decree for the appointment of outgoing Chief Prosecutor, Boris Velchev, as constitutional judge.

Velchev was nominated for the post by Plevneliev on October 20, 2012, and must take the oath of office within one week after the appointment.

Velchev's 7-year term in office as Chief Prosecutor began in 2006. He used to be the legal advisor of former left-wing President Georgi Parvanov.

The Chief Prosecutor's term is set to expire in February 2013.

Bulgaria's Constitutional Court has a total of 12 sitting members; 1/3 of those are replaced every three years, with the Parliament being entitled to elect two of them, and the President and the Judges from the Supreme Court of Cassation and the Supreme Administrative Court being entitled to one appointment each.

Ignoring strong criticism from the European Commission that the Parliament is covering up tipoffs against one of the candidates, the Bulgarian MPs elected Wednesday without debates the 2 constitutional judges from their quota.

They are Anastas Anastasov, Deputy Speaker of the Parliament from the ruling, center-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party, GERB and the Deputy Chair of the Supreme Administrative Court, VAS, Veneta Markovska.

In the aftermath, EC announced that Bulgaria might face an interim report on justice and home affairs in case "the situation requires it."

The warning was stated by Olivier Bailly, spokesperson of EC.

"There were serious allegations of trading influence and corruption on the part of one of the candidates," Bailly, cited by the Bulgarian National Radio, BNR, said, but did not disclose a name.

The tipoffs, again according to BNR, were against Markovska.

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Tags: Chief Prosecutor, Constitutional Court, judge, president, Rosen Plevneliev, VSS, parliament, parliamentary quota, EC, Bulgaria, interim, report, judicial appointments, monitoring, cooperation and verification mechanism, Veneta Markovska, VAS, quota, constitutional judges, elected, GERB, Deputy Speaker of the Parliament, Anastas Anastasov

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