3/8/2022 - The Bulgarian National Assembly has voted to close down the Specialized Criminal Court, the Appellate Specialized Criminal Court, the Specialized Prosecutor's Office and the Appellate Specialized Prosecutor's Office. After the Bulgarian Prosecutor General referred the matter of the closure of Specialized Courts and Prosecutor’s Offices to the Constitutional Court of Bulgaria, the Constitutional Court on 14 July 2022 confirmed that the closure does not contradict the Constitution. Relevant amendments made to the Judiciary Act has come into force on 27 July 2022.
For ongoing proceedings, the consequence of the new law is the following:
• The pre-trial proceedings and files in the Specialized Prosecutor's Office that have not been completed before the entry into force of the law of the changes shall be sent to the respective prosecutor's offices within their competence within seven days from the entry into force of the law.
• The first instance criminal cases before the Specialized Criminal Court, in which the judicial investigation has not been initiated and no sessions have been held until the law enter into force, will be sent to the relevant courts within 7 days of the entry into force of this law.
• The first instance criminal cases before the Specialized Criminal Court, in which the judicial investigation has been launched and sessions have been held before the law enter into force, will become under the jurisdiction of the Sofia City Court and shall be considered by the court panel that held the hearing. Judges from the court panels, who have not been reassigned to the Sofia City Court, are seconded to participate in the examination of cases until the end of the proceedings.
• The judges of the court panel, who considered the first instance criminal cases in which a sentence has been rendered, but they were not reassigned to the Sofia City Court, are also seconded to the Sofia City Court to announce the reasons for the sentence. This will be applicable also to the Appellate Specialized Criminal Court.
The Sofia City Court as a first instance court has jurisdiction of crimes of general nature committed by, inter alia, judges, prosecutors and investigators, members of Council of Ministers. The cases of the European Public Prosecutors Office will be in the competence of Sofia City Court.
For more detailed information, please consult an unofficial translation of the amendment of the Judiciary Act available below.