- I am doing everything necessary not to allow the prosecutor’s office to be used for political purposes, announces I.F. chief prosecutor in his concept, which he submitted to the SJC
- He proposes that more investigators take over the corruption cases, to remove the persons taking charge, not to write every time a reasoned refusal to open a case
The experts should be united in one center with regional structures. Their specialties and the places where they work to be included in a national database. At the same time, consider the creation of a national bureau of forensic expertise under the Ministry of Justice, to which all conclusions in the cases will be assigned.
In the Higher Education Act, to discuss a change so that faculty councils provide experts when necessary. To remove the possessive persons introduced on the Russian model. The reason – by the time you find two people who agree, evidence can be lost. To drop the requirement that prosecutors give reasons for their refusals and to remove the mandatory submission of materials at the end of the investigation.
Corruption cases to be investigated by investigators
These are part of the ideas of Borislav Sarafov, embedded in his concept of the chief prosecutor. He took it to the Supreme Judicial Council on Wednesday. The actual hearing and voting in the Plenary of the personnel body will be on January 16 next year.
In his concept, which is 48 pages long, Sarafov dwells both on what motivated him to run (see box below) as well as the necessary legislative changes in his opinion. He explains how he sees the judicial reform and the prosecutor’s office in the next 7 years, which is the term of prosecutor #1.
“Seeing the bad practices of my predecessor, I learn from his mistakes and do whatever is necessary
not to allow the prosecutor’s office to be used for political purposes”, he points out.
I.F. the attorney general lists the reasons that lead to delays in cases. The first one, which is most thoroughly addressed, is the shortage of experts.
“A large part of the prosecutor’s offices note
serious difficulties in finding forensic, auto-technical, chemical-physical experts
expertises, occupational safety specialists, in the field of finance and accounting”, he points out. And he adds that the problem has been around for years. According to him, “it is more than clear that it cannot be solved with organizational and administrative measures, but only at the legislative level”.
Therefore, he believes that the work of experts should be regulated in a new way. He proposes that their activities be united in a center with regional structures. A national database should provide access to all experts, their specialty and the region in which they work, in the pre-trial proceedings. According to him, it can be thought that, although “the idea is avant-garde”, the faculty councils at the higher education institutions help with experts when special knowledge is needed.
“This is particularly important for the timely completion of criminal proceedings, the course of which is seriously hampered by the impossibility of carrying out the appointed examinations in various fields of knowledge,” he notes.
The other reasons for the slowness of cases are: the slow implementation of legal aid requests and European investigation orders. Also, the possibilities for considering the case in the absence of the accused are not used.
There are also subjective reasons. As such it lists
frequent changes of supervising prosecutors
due to personnel changes in the prosecutor’s office or dismissals, as well as many shifts of investigators due to personnel problems in the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
In his concept, he also explains how he imagines judicial reform. “The personnel change of anyone in the judicial system is not judicial reform,” notes the candidate for prosecutor #1.
“Actually, it is we who, more than anyone else, are in dire need of judicial reform
– real, reasonable and consistent with the times and the results of our work expected by society”, he points out.
He adds that he hopes “this time it will not be viewed through the prism of the opportunistic interests of individual political lobbies”.
In its concept, it explains that its priorities are the fight against organized crime, corruption crimes, as well as those related to transport traumatism and
domestic violence, which is a shame for Bulgarian society
He thoroughly emphasized that the Penal Code, which is from 1968, is “irretrievably outdated”.
“Although patched many times, it cannot serve the dynamics of public life and modern forms of criminal activity – the waste of public resources through public procurement, cybercrimes, the collection of electronic evidence, modern methods of money laundering, etc.”, Sarafov lists.
An important step in judicial reform is that the prosecutor no longer has to give reasons for his refusals.
“The district prosecutor’s offices receive reports that express a personal attitude towards an event or a person, dissatisfaction with a condominium decision with which one of the co-operators does not agree, personal dislike for a neighbor and a number of other reports in which there is no evidence of a crime ”, he points out.
When the prosecutor refuses to open a case based on such a report, he must give a detailed reason. Therefore, Sarafov suggests that in such cases, only a resolution of rejection should be put.
Another important point in the concept is that the Attorney General announces himself
to preserve the text according to which cars are confiscated from drunks
and the drugged drivers. However, he believes that the text should be edited. Now, cars or their leva equivalent are not necessarily confiscated when a drunk or drugged driver causes a serious accident.
Sarafov also suggests that certain acts such as minor bodily harm, minor cases of property crimes should have a reduced order of criminal prosecution. This would speed up and reduce the financial resources needed to conduct the criminal proceedings.
According to him, it is good that the cases of the anti-corruption commission should be investigated by an investigator. “I observe with growing concern how legislative change is increasingly urgently needed,” he wrote. As “a huge problem that is deepening and may soon lead to a loop and even failure of a huge part of the corruption cases”, the candidate for chief prosecutor defines the fact that now only the inspectors from the commission are investigating these cases.
He took over the prosecutor’s office when it was a toy in the hands of the previous attorney general
“Unfortunately, I was forced to take over the leadership of the prosecutor’s office in its most difficult period,” notes Borislav Sarafov. Then she “looked like a toy in the hands of the former chief prosecutor”. At that moment she was without any real crime-related priorities, played politics and was ruled authoritarian. “He abused the trust of his colleagues towards the chief prosecutor, who, ignoring the fact that he is a magistrate, behaved like a political leader (including on holidays he sent greetings to the nation)”, says Sarafov. According to him, then the connection with the Prosecution College of the SJC was broken, which was no longer accepted as a body that controls the chief prosecutor, but as his auxiliary body”. Sarafov decided to apply for the position, because he had 30 years of experience in all levels of the prosecution. The experience was gained mainly in the course of working on cases against significant figures of organized crime and corruption.