Interview with Andrey Yankulov: We are back in Filchev’s period in the Prosecutor’s Office

Andrey Yankulov, ACF’s senior legal expert, for Capital: “An essential part of the drama of our criminal justice comes from the minimal forms of procedural control over how the Prosecutor’s Office does and does not prosecute. If there is a monopoly, there is a problem. There is enough experience, which we can draw from other European legislations, about suitable forms of external control over the Prosecutor’s Office. Both when it is inactive – it does not conduct an adequate investigation, does not accuse when it should be, and when it does act but should not be – it uses its powerful means for criminal repression without a legitimate reason. It is the tremendous uncontrolled power of the Prosecutor’s office. A solution to this problem must be sought as a matter of priority. Who should exercise this control? Of course, the court. Many arguments can be put forward in support of the thesis that the judges should play a decisive role (but not an exclusive one, to avoid encapsulation) in the judiciary’s management, of the entire unified judiciary. We should not search for a solution in a political (party) management of one part of the judiciary – the Prosecutor’s Office. “