Open letter to the members of the SJC in relation to the statements of Council member Boyan Novansky of 7 July 2022

To
the members of the Supreme Judicial Council

C/C:

Nadejda Yordanova
Minister of Justice

OPEN LETTER

from
Adela Katchaounova, attorney-at-law
Director of the Legal Programme of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee

Ladies and Gentlemen magistrates,

Dear Ms. Minister,

Mr. Novansky,

The Bulgarian Helsinki Committee (BHC) has been closely monitoring the human rights situation in Bulgaria for 30 years. It depends entirely on respect for the principles of the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary. The history and origins of the name of the organisation have always been public and are well known: https://www.bghelsinki.org/en/who-we-are/history.

Eleven years after the resignations of judges Kostova and Zakharova as members of the SJC − when the BHC stood up in their support and committed to the issue of the independence of the judiciary, as one of the prerequisites for the effective protection of human rights in Bulgaria − we regret to note, that the current SJC is no less defective than the one in 2011.

Evidence of this is not just the series of dependent decisions and dependent personnel choices of this council. This is also evidenced by various official and unofficial statements by many in its current composition, which statements can only be defined as rude and even degrading personal attacks on other members of the council; to representatives of the executive power; to political parties, and individual politicians engaged in the public debate on the independence and reform of the judiciary; to media and individual journalists; and finally – to civil society organizations.

This behaviour by more than one member of the council, which we have seen escalate over the past year, reached a climax of sorts at its meeting on Thursday, July 7, 2022, during the deliberations on the proposals by Justice Minister Prof. Yanaki Stoilov and Nadezhda Yordanova for the early dismissal of the Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev due to the presence of the circumstances under Art. 129, par. 3(5) of the Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria. We would like to draw attention most sharply to the conduct of Mr Bojan Novansky, a member of the Council from the parliamentary quota, on the proposal of the United Patriots coalition.

At this meeting, Mr. Novansky made the following statement:

“As much as Bulgaria has an original Gallup International, Bulgaria has a real Helsinki Committee. The latter has as much to do with Helsinki as my participation in the distribution of the golden passports. So much, by the way, and I bought a bar from a bailiff. They might as well have called themselves the Upper Banana Committee. This is the first time I have heard that the decisions and opinions of non-governmental organizations are reprehensible and moral, because they are not binding, on the SJC, the Secretary of Justice, or the Attorney General. Lawyers are known to be owed respect, as judges, in and on the performance of their professional work. But there is no such thing for NGOs. There are sects around the world that have built the foundation of their religion on the claim that the Earth is flat. At the same time to explain that, we are full idiots. It’s either one or the other.”

This is not the only statement made by Mr Novansky in the last half a year. At the meeting of the SJC on 4 April 2022, he said:

“With regard to the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee [...] I will just say that this committee is as Helsinki as it can be called Gornobanski, and this is the first time I have heard, by the way, that respect and anything other than institutionality, so to speak, is owed within the NGOs to the NGOs themselves.”

These statements by Mr. Novansky are not simply a demonstration of a misunderstanding that decency is not necessarily codified in legal norms prescribing respect. These statements are themselves a demonstration of disregard for civil society. Furthermore, we would like to remind Mr Novansky that all people are equal in dignity and rights, and respect in interpersonal communication would be a guarantor of the high moral qualities that he, as a member of the SJC, should possess.

Both for a body like the SJC and for a person like Mr Novanski, who is in public office, such behaviour is not acceptable. And against the background of the delegitimisation of the council - it is not tolerable either. Similarly, rough and humiliating attacks on the greatest and the most civil organization for the protection of human rights in Bulgaria, only humiliate VSS and its attached public liking of the most civil. In spite of the presence of respectable and dignified magistrates. Thus, this Council is now only tarnishing its public image with the damage of its inaction when suspicions of corruption and influence peddling in the judiciary and with the actions of its members, are brought to light.

It is for the latter reason, as well as in the interest of the prestige of the judiciary, that we address you, the members of the SJC. We do not believe such conduct has any place in the highest personnel body of the judiciary, which represents it. We therefore call on you to exercise your powers under Article 312(2) of the Judiciary Act and to propose that Boyan Novansky be disciplined.

And if Mr Novansky finds it decent to resign, let him do so. ♦