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Kamen Sitnilski, VSS member and former Deputy Chief Prosecutor, photo by BGNES
In an unprecedented move, Bulgaria's Supreme Judicial Council (VSS) suspended for six months Thursday from his post VSS member and former Deputy Chief Prosecutor Kamen Sitnilski.
On July 26, VSS opened the proceedings on the proposal of the VSS Ethics Committee on the basis of leaked wiretaps of conversations between Sitnilski, Rumen Boev, VSS member, and other magistrates, during which they agreed how they would vote at the delegate assembly convened in the autumn of 2012 to elect VSS members from the prosecutors' quota.
The controversial recordings were published in end-June, according to reports of dnevnik.bg.
The disciplinary committee tasked with deciding on Sitnilski's case consists of VSS members Galya Georgieva, Vasil Petrov, and Magdalena Lazarova.
The committee tabled Thursday as an emergency item on the VSS meeting agenda Sitnilski's dismissal. This came as a surprise as it happened immediately after the election of a new Sofia City Prosecutor failed.
The number of votes for and against the dismissal remains unclear. The VSS decision can be appealed before the Supreme Administrative Court, VAS.
Some of theVSS members have opposed the emergency vote.
Sitnilski could only be imposed a penalty of disciplinary dismissal, which had to be backed by a qualified 2/3 majority of VSS members, or be cleared of the charges.
On July 3, Bulgaria's Supreme Prosecutor's Office of Cassations announced the leaked wiretaps had been obtained through special surveillance equipment deployed at the request of the former Chief Directorate "Combating Organized Crime" (GDBOP) of the Interior Ministry.
The transcripts of the conversations were sent to the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office by GDBOP on April 19, 2013, in connection with pre-trial proceedings opened by the prosecuting authority.
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