Писмо до Европейския парламент от името на протестиращи българи в чужбина

Distinguished Members of the European Parliament, 

We are addressing you on behalf of thousands of protesting Bulgarians living abroad.Bulgarian citizens both in the country and around the world are on the streets and have been protesting every day for three months against an authoritarian government. They are protesting not only against corruption, but mostly against the government that has taken away the state  from its citizens.In the last four years, a total defeat of statehood, law and justice has taken place in Bulgaria. The country is ruled by an unscrupulous group of politicians, senior government officials and their aides, who operate as a criminal group through the levers of the state.The suppression of laws and the Constitution has become a daily routine,  the confrontation with those who have dared to express positions that are inconvenient for the government has become a norm of behavior.The Prosecutor's Office, the Specialized Criminal Court and the Appellate Specialized Criminal Court rejected the fundamental principles of the rule of law and the presumption of innocence. These institutions have imposed the  practice of arresting and detaining people - without a sentence - for months and even years. People who have not committed murders, terrorist acts, armed robberies and attacks, or other serious crimes. In most cases, those people have been critiques  of the current government.All that recidivism became possible with the amendments to the Judiciary Act and the Criminal Procedure Code of Bulgaria from the end of 2017, as well as with the election of a compromised Prosecutor General in Oct 2019. His professional biography was insignificant and there was no basis for him to be elected to this extremely important position, but he was imposed as the only candidate.An illustrative example of the impunity of the Prosecutor General and the brutal suppression of statehood was the invasion of the presidential institution by the prosecution. Together with the civil actions and protests that started a few days earlier, these actions against democracy gathered people with different political preferences and from different social groups, united by the concern to protect the rule of law in Bulgaria.We want the resignation of the current government and parliament, early elections and deep reforms to be carried out by the next government and the next parliament. The current government does not trust the people - according to opinion polls, more than 60% want their resignation. Thus compromised, the current government creates an extremely negative image not only of Bulgaria, but of the entire EU  around the world as well.We want constitutional and legal changes that eliminate the current model of impunity and guarantee accountability and public control over the activities of the prosecution and the Prosecutor General. We insist on profound personnel changes in the judiciary, with objective criteria to remove magistrates who participated in and supported the violations of the rule of law. We want reforms that restore the authority and role of the Bulgarian Parliament as the highest body for democratic governance, and not as an appendage of the executive branch We call on the Members of the European Parliament to set up a Committee of Inquiry to investigate the practices of the Prosecutor's Office, the Specialized Criminal Court and the Appellate Specialized Criminal Court in Bulgaria with regard to the prolonged detention of accused persons, which may continue in many cases. of criminal proceedings up to 8 months, a year and a half, and in some cases over 2 years (after new charges have been filed upon the expiration of the initial term, regulated by the Code of Criminal Procedure).This practice is in violation of Article 48 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, as well as Article 31 (paragraph 3 and paragraph 4) of the Bulgarian Constitution, which respectively state that the accused is presumed innocent until the establishment of the contrary by an effective sentence, and that no restrictions are allowed on the rights of the accused in excess of what is necessary for the administration of justice. Finally, we urge the European institutions to pay serious and in-depth attention to the EU-wide decline in democracy and the rule of law in Bulgaria.     

Sincerely,

Krasimir Miloushev, Richmond Hill, ON Canada

Красимир Милушев    Свържете се с автора на петицията