Bulgaria’s prosecutor’s office said on December 17 that it has closed the investigation into whether an earlier probe against Atanas Semov, who took his oath as a Constitutional Court judge last month, had been properly closed.
The refusal to open a pre-trial investigation in 2016, following a tip-off in 2013, was “correct and in line with the law”, as there was no crime committed, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
Semov, appointed to the Constitutional Court by President Roumen Radev, had been alleged to have used his position as a law professor at Sofia University to “pursue private business activities” and was alleged to have signed a deal “damaging to the university.”
After ordering the Interior Ministry to look into the allegations, in 2016 prosecutors decided not to pursue the matter further by opening a formal pre-trial investigation.
Following Semov’s appointment to the Constitutional Court, the case was brought up in an opinion piece published in a Bulgarian weekly, prompting the new inquest by the appellate prosecutor’s office.
(Photo: Clive Leviev-Sawyer)
