Court of cassation

The Bulgarian parliament approved at second reading on Wednesday the division of the Supreme Judicial Council (VSS) in two colleges - one made of judges and another composed of prosecutors.

According to the adopted amendment, judges and prosecutors will be appointed, promoted, lowered, transferred and discharged by their respective college.

Bulgaria's Supreme Court of Cassation (VKS) has sentenced  the former director of heating utility Toplofikatsiya Sofia Valentin Dimitrov to three years' imprisonment.

Rulings by the VKS cannot be appealed. The court confirmed previous rulings that found him guilty of property mismanagement.

Anelia Tsvetkova, former Chair of the Varna Administrative Court, has been conclusively convicted for bribery.

Tanya Raykovska, Deputy Chair of Bulgaria's Supreme Court of Cassation (VKS), has been elected Judge at the Constitutional Court (KS).

Raykovska won a run-off with Boyan Magdalinchev, Deputy Chair of the Supreme Administrative Court (VAS).

Italy's Supreme Court of Cassation has annulled the 20-year prison term of Bulgarian Evelin Banev AKA Brendo for drug trafficking and returned the case for retrial to the Appellate Court of Milan.

The Milan-based court is to hold a new trial within a year, according to Bulgaria's Legal World magazine and the 24 Hours daily.

The decision was taken at a 2-hour meeting.

The Sofia Appellate Court has revoked the 4-year prison sentence of former Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov over blocking the deployment of special surveillance equipment against Orlin Todorov, former head of Veliko Tarnovo's regional anti-mafia unit, and two other people.

Supreme Court of Appeals President ?smail Rü?tü Ciri has warned against groups substituting their own interests for the public's interest, in an indirect reference to the Gülen Movement in the civil service affiliated with U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen. 

Justice Minister Robert Cazanciuc on Thursday welcomed President of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) Dean Spielmann to discuss, among other things, property returning and detention conditions in Romania's penitentiaries.

The Belgrade Lawyers Association has rejected the request of Nata Mesarovic, former president of the Supreme Court of Cassation and the High Judicial Council, to enter the register of lawyers.

For the first time ever and contrary to its earlier decisions on the issue in the past, Turkey's Supreme Court of Appeals has ruled that women will be able to use only their maiden surname after marriage.