Bulgarian Judge Sues Interior Minister for Libel

The Chair of theBulgarian Judges Association, Miroslava Todorova, filed a libel lawsuit against the Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov. The first hearing in the case is scheduled for April 27th at the Plovdiv Regional Court. Todorova sued Tsvetanov for saying that she is incompetent and is patronizing organized crime. Tsvetanov’s criticism of Todorova is a part of an ongoing media war between the Bulgarian judiciary and law enforcement, in which each side blames the other for the country’s failure to meet the reform goals set by the European Union. In an interview for theBulgarian National Television in February, Tsvetanov said that “There are approaches applied in the judiciary by like-minded judges who are actually not in the service of society…but rather in the service of organized crime.”