Ivan Geshev
Photo: BGNES
The Sofia District Court stopped the defamation case against the former Minister of Justice Atanas Slavov, which was brought by the former Chief Prosecutor Ivan Geshev.
The reason – Slavov’s parliamentary immunity.
The case was filed after Slavov’s statement regarding the so-called “Notary” case, from which Geshev claims that he felt defamed. It started while Slavov was a minister, i.e. had no immunity. After the Denkov cabinet was replaced by the Glavchev cabinet, he explicitly declared to the Sofia District Court his desire to continue examining the case, despite the parliamentary immunity.
However, it turned out that, at least according to this court panel, this cannot be done.
It became clear that if in criminal cases there is a procedure in which the chief prosecutor requests the immunity of a member of parliament, the person under investigation either waives it voluntarily or takes decisions from the National Assembly, then in these cases, which are of a criminal-private nature, there is no specially described procedure .
There are different opinions of lawyers, so the question remains open and again pending what happens with such cases against people with immunity.
It is clear from the decision on this case that the outlook on this case will be a function of whether Atanas Slavov will become a deputy in the next National Assembly or not. If not, the case will be able to continue. If it does, it will continue to be postponed due to his immunity, and it is not excluded that in this extended period of time the statute of limitations will also expire.
After it became clear that it would take time to prove that Atanas Slavov had been slandered, Ivan Geshev, deeply affected, summed up that politicians are hiding behind their immunities and that he was right when he said that “there is political garbage in the parliament” .
Erol Emilov worked on the publication
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