May 18 (BTA) - The presidents of Bulgaria's Specialized
Criminal Court (SCrC) and Appellate Specialized Criminal Court
(ASCrC) Tuesday presented their courts' 2020 annual activity
reports.

Of the 6,418 cases referred to the SCrC in 2020, 174 were cases
proper and 6,244 were private cases (precautionary measures
securing the defendant's appearance, examinations, etc.) The
court tried 1,363 cases with 3,900 charges in aggregate and
questioned 9,310 witnesses.

Forty-five sentences were passed, and 42 cases were dismissed
owing to procedural irregularities committed by prosecutors
during the investigation. Seventy-seven cases were disposed of
by plea bargain agreements proposed by the prosecution. Two
hundred and twenty defendants were convicted and 70 were
acquitted.

The ASCrC confirmed 24 sentences, reversed eight and returned
them for re-examination, and passed new sentences in another
eight cases.

In 2020 the SCrC granted 2,798 authorizations for the deployment
 of special investigation techniques and issued 194 refusals to
such requests.

Of the 680 cases referred to the ASCrC, 52 were for publicly
prosecutable offences and 628 were private cases. For 2020, the
court tried 751 cases, of which 636 were private. The defendants
 on trial totalled 1,566, and they were charged with 2,955
offences.

The Supreme Court of Cassation left standing some 60 per cent of
 the ASCrC's sentences, reversed nearly 30 per cent in whole or
in part, and modified the court decisions on some 15 per cent of
 the cases.

According to their presidents, the specialized courts operated
effectively during the year.

ASCrC President Georgi Ushev commented that he did not expect
support from SCC President Lozan Panov in connection with the
specialized jurisdictions closure bill that was tabled in the
defunct 45th National Assembly. In his words, the Supreme
Judicial Council reacted adequately to the situation by issued a
 declaration against the proposed revisions.

"We are not concerned about our personal status, if we wish, we
can stay in the judicial system. We are concerned about the
encroachment on independence in trying the cases because the
bill envisaged a selection of judges for completion of the cases
 and a practically unconstitutional selection of judges for
demotion to positions they held 10 years ago without having
committed any violations," the ASCrC President pointed out.

The draft amendments to the Judicial System Act and the Criminal
 Procedure Code providing for the closure of the specialized
jurisdictions were approved by the parliamentary Legal Affairs
Committee on April 28 by 10 votes in favour (Democratic
Bulgaria, There Is Such a People, Rise Up! Thugs Out! and BSP
for Bulgaria), 2 against (Movement for Rights and Freedoms), and
 5 abstentions (GERB). The bill did not reach the plenary stage
when Parliament was dissolved on May 11.

Critics of the specialized courts and prosecution offices argue
that powerholders use them as "bludgeons" to eliminate their
political and business opponents. Proponents insist that the
specialized jurisdictions were set up acting on recommendations
from the European Commission and the Council of Europe and that
their closure is likely to wreck the Bulgarian judicial system,
throwing the cases of serious organized crime figures and
oligarchs back to square one, releasing them from custody, and
giving them back their seized assets totalling 3.5 billion leva.

The prosecution service has complained to several EU
institutions about the planned closure, and prosecutors held
"silent protests" in various parts of the country.  

The first-instance Specialized Criminal Court was established in
 2011 to try cases of forming, directing and participation in an
 organized crime group, other offences committed by a person
contracted by, or acting in furtherance of a decision of, an
organized crime group, including murder, bodily injury,
kidnapping and illegal restraint, theft, robbery, coercion,
sexual offences, official embezzlement, destroying and damaging
another's property, blackmail, cross-border smuggling,
documentary and financial offences, trafficking in cultural
goods and in human beings, arson and offences against transport
and communications, against public health and the environment,
including production and distribution of explosives and
narcotics. The instruments issued by the Specialized Court are
subject to intermediate appellate review before the Appellate
Specialized Court. This structure is parallelled by two
specialized prosecution offices. RY/LG


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