Lozan Panov: There Is a Risk for the Chief Prosecutor Election to Be Left with only One Nomination

Supreme Court of Cassation (SCC) chairman Lozan Panov believes there is a risk that the election of the Chief Prosecutor will remain with only one nomination after yesterday the entire Prosecutor's College of the Supreme Judicial Council (YSC) raised Ivan Geshev. To journalists, Panov said that there is still the possibility of raising another application, which is only for pro forma competition.

Transparency is important, and it should happen in the SJC's plenary. We looked at cases where prominent prosecutors were elected with pro forma candidacies and, eventually, even those who submitted a proposal did not vote for it, Panov recalled.

He asked to first get acquainted with Geshev's concept and then to ask questions. It is important for him to see the development of the prosecutor's office, it is important with what actions he has dealt with, what actions he has brought to court, Panov said.

As for the case of the personal data of Judge Miroslava Todorova, Panov said that despite the explanation from Chief Justice Inspector Teodora Tochkova, he will insist that there should be a hearing, both to Tochkova and Todorova.

It is not clear what the reasons are and how this happened with the declaration. I expect to know if there is a tendency. The explanation that an employee got confused is not enough, Panov commented on the position of the Inspectorate stating that an economics expert had made a technical mistake.

If there is no reaction now, there is a risk of this happening again, the chairman of the SCC pointed out and saw in this case an element of tendency - this is exactly the case with Todorova, who was regularly checked that she was regularly attacked by the Chief Prosecutor .