Statement by the spokesperson of the Prosecutor General on the occasion of the pre-trial proceedings for a death threat of a magistrate from the Specialized Prosecutor's Office
In the last year, the Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Bulgaria has repeatedly warned of political pressure on the institution, on magistrates and their relatives.
Unfortunately, I am here in front you today to announce another form of pressure. Pressure that is already criminal - in a Member State of the European Union, a magistrate receives death threats for doing his job.
On April 6, 2022, on Cherkovna Street in Sofia, in the office of the magistrate, in a cupboard containing working materials, the presence of a paper envelope addressed personally to the prosecutor was found, without a specified sender. In the envelope were found - 1 pc. cartridge, caliber 9x19 mm, and several paper notes representing clippings of individual words.
It is inadmissible for a prosecutor to find in his office - an envelope addressed personally to him, note, containing a cartridge and clippings with messages. What is written on the clippings? Literally, it says "Blood" and "informed." Each of you can decide for yourself whether this is a threat and what the goal
Is it a coincidence that the envelope also contains a text with the name of a Sofia hospital, which the colleague has visited many times in recent months? As well as a note with the name of a foreign country.
And these messages were found not elsewhere, but in an office, in a building used by the independent judiciary and guarded by employees from the Ministry of Justice.
What's the purpose? Perhaps for magistrates to be afraid and cannot perform their official duties. Our main mission is to fight crime and protect Bulgarian citizens from encroachment, and not our colleagues and their relatives to be subject to threats and persecution.
The Rome Charter and Opinion № 9 of the Consultative Council of European Prosecutors reflect in a concentrated form the main guidelines and principles related to the organization and structure of the prosecution in a democratic society.
- Prosecutors should be autonomous in their decision-making and should perform their duties free from external pressure or interference.
- States should ensure that prosecutors are able to perform their duties without intimidation, obstruction, harassment.
In this case it is a colleague who has been under security guard for more than a year namely because of the threat for months. How will the state guarantee that the same will not happen to other colleagues and that the attitude towards the intimidated magistrate will stop here?
What else needs to happen in order all of us to really work for the society and not to worry about media attacks, threats, repression?
It came to us that colleagues inspect our offices, question other colleagues whose lives are under threat.
Prosecutors from the Sofia Regional Prosecutor's Office (SRPO) and investigators from the Investigative Department at the Sofia City Prosecutor`s Office (SCPO) are currently carrying out investigative actions on pre-trial proceedings for systematic tracing and death threat of a magistrate.
The intimidation against the prosecutor will be reported to the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Embassies of EU member states, the United States and the United Kingdom.