The Sofia Court House. Photo: Foxj/Flickr

Bulgaria’s Judges’ Association has accused the Supreme Judicial Council, the main regulating body, of taking selective actions against targeted courts and judges.

On Thursday, the Judges’ Association condemned the decision of the chamber of judges on Tuesday to launch probes against Bulgaria’s largest regional court, the Sofia City Court and the Sofia Regional Court, as well as to initiate a disciplinary procedure against Miroslava Todorova, a judge in the City Court.

“We express our strong opposition to the selective treatment demonstrated by the majority of the judicial college … and the use of a forceful approach towards courts and judges that are obviously considered uncomfortable,” the judges said.

The probes have all been requested by Bulgaria’s Prosecutor General, Sotir Tsatsarov.

The two Sofia courts will be reviewed for delaying trials, although both have undergone regular probes already over the past year.

The decision of the regulatory body follows a period of tensions between the Sofia City Court and Tsatsarov, which started in mid-November.

The Prosecutor General called on the Judicial Council to launch a procedure against the Sofia Court for delayed trials on November 14. Two days later, the court proved that the prosecution had referred to inaccurate data and accused it of manipulation.

The judges’ association condemned the prosecutor’s investigation of the court, warning that it was creating a feeling of a “war between institutions”.

On November 18, five members of the Judges Council called on the judicial college to issue a declaration against Tsatsarov’s actions, but the regulatory body did not reach a consensus on the proposal.

Miroslava Todorova, а a former president of the Judges’ Association and a judge in the Sofia City Court, faces sanctions for failing to deliver a decision on time in a case concerning a bank.

Although the signal against Todorova filed by Tsatsarov concerns only one case, the inspectorate for the judicial chamber has decided to review her entire legal practice and on November 28 it proposed sanctioning her.

Todorova told BIRN that the problems with overload at the Sofia Regional Court are longstanding and well known.

She added that punishing judges for not handling more cases than their capacity allows is “not a solution, but terror which is not art for arts’s sake”.

She said: “An atmosphere of shame and fear is being maintained, which is only a sanctuary for the clientelist judicial nomenclature that feels threatened.

“This can be seen from the massive aggression against the management of the Sofia City Court, which instead of being supported for the radical measures it has taken against the corrupt practices of the former one, is being put in a defensive position,” the judge added.

Todorova was fired from the Sofia Court in 2012 after a long legal battle with former Interior Minster Tsvetan Tsvetanov during the first government of Boyko Borissov’s GERB party.

She was then president of the Judges’ Association, which accused Tsvetanov of interference in the work of the judiciary. Her ousting provoked criticism at home, from Brussels and from international organizations of magistrates.

In July 2013, Bulgaria’s Supreme Judicial Court abolished the decision on Todorova’s dismissal.

Judges and employees from the Sofia Regional Court announced late on Wednesday that they will stage a protest in front of the Supreme Judicial Council on Friday, “to defend the independence” of the court.

The court complained that it had not received support from the regulatory body in resolving its longstanding problems but was instead being subjected to constant probes that violate its independence.

On Facebook, the Sofia Regional Court noted that the Supreme Judicial Council together with the prosecution had shown that judges should not raise their voices.

“Those entrusted with defending judicial independence demonstrate this. The judges and employees of the Sofia Regional Court will not allow this crooked situation to continue.”

Over the past two years, the government has been trying to push through a judicial reform, demanded both by civil society and by Brussels.

The division of the SJC into two colleges – one of judges and one of prosecutors – is among the main parts of the reform, aimed at increasing the independence of the judiciary.

The reform was watered down in December 2015, however, provoking the resignation of the former Minister of Judiciary, Hristo Ivanov.