2024-02-19 14:44:56
It was with fear and sadness that I found out that my name was present in a negative connotation in a series of interviews of a particular Bulgarian judge in the last two days. Fear because from whom, if not a judge, should citizens expect justice.
Fear, because the judge is the one who should best be aware of the weight of every single word used. Well, isn’t it precisely through the power of words that every judge dispenses justice.
Fear, because a Bulgarian judge pronounces a verdict on the air of the media I respect, which were part of my professional path, and at the same time uses false suggestions.
This is stated in the position of the head of the press center of the prosecutor’s office, Veselin Ivanov, uploaded on Facebook regarding the sums of Judge Vladislava Tsarigradska. She stated earlier today during her appearance on Nova TV that “hours ago” they had a mutual acquaintance with Veselin Ivanov and said that he had said to the judge: “Tell this woman to calm down”, and she accepted this as a threat.
Here is what Veselin Ivanov also writes:
Sadness because my personality is being used in an attempt to artificially generate tension and an ugly attack against the institution of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Bulgaria. At a time when real actions have been taken to clean up and reform the system. Something that is happening for the first time in over a decade. It was within the framework of the process of reforming the institution and because of inadmissible practices carried out at the end of the mandate of the previous chief prosecutor, already in the middle of 2023, six employees were dismissed from the Directorate I lead. For all this, I have also given the relevant testimony before a competent authority.
At the same time, I declare that in no way, neither “hours ago”, nor in a previous period, have I or the “Public Communication” Directorate been involved in any way with publications relating to the Bulgarian judge in question, circulating publicly my name with unverified statements and in violation of the Code of Ethical Conduct of Bulgarian Judges. It is an easily verifiable fact that there are articles about the specific judge on certain websites long before I took the current position in the administration of the prosecutor’s office.
It sounds frivolous and even beyond reasonable that, as a court official, I allowed myself to make any form of threat to the judge in question, and in general to a magistrate or a Bulgarian citizen. For the comfort of the judge in question, who publicly declares ambitions for career growth, I will clarify that in recent months I have also noticed publications against my person, on the same sites that the lady defines as “yellow” and “brown”, but I am not allowed me to engage anyone with it, even my family. Alas, the sad reality is such, and in view of my professional commitment, I am aware that the object of similar negative publications are dozens of Bulgarian prosecutors, investigators and quite a few judges, but I have not established from this that they are making campaigns, including h. pre-election ones.
Belief in the professionalism and conscience of these magistrates, who are definitely the majority, gives me hope for the future of Bulgarian justice, despite the power ambitions, be it of a specific Bulgarian judge or of a former chief prosecutor, a similarity in the behavior of which I am increasingly discovering .