Sofia City Court, Bulgaria v Dimintrinka Atanasova-Kalaidzhieva
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | Lord Justice Pitchford |
| Judgment Date | 09 September 2011 |
| Neutral Citation | [2011] EWHC 2335 (Admin) |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division (Administrative Court) |
| Docket Number | CO/2626/2011,Case No: CO/2626/2011 |
| Date | 09 September 2011 |
[2011] EWHC 2335 (Admin)
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION
ADMINISTRATIVE COURT
On appeal from District Judge Riddle sitting at
City of Westminster Magistrates Court on 17 March 2011
Royal Courts of Justice
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL
Lord Justice Pitchford AND Mr Justice Supperstone
Case No: CO/2626/2011
John Hardy QC and Rachel Scott (instructed by Crown Prosecution Service) for the Appellant
Ben Watson (instructed by Hallinan Blackburn Gitting & Nott) for the Respondent
Hearing date: 8 July 2011
This is the judgment of the court. The respondent, Dimintrinka Atanasova-Kalaidzhieva is the subject of a European Arrest Warrant ("EAW") issued by the Sofia City Court, the appellant issuing judicial authority ("the IJA"), on 26 March 2010. On 17 March 2011 Senior District Judge Riddle, sitting at City of Westminster Magistrates Court discharged the respondent from the extradition proceedings brought under Part 1 of the Extradition Act 2003 on the ground that the request constituted an abuse of the process of the court. The IJA appeals against that decision under section 28 of the Extradition Act 2003.
Summary of background
This is the second time that Bulgaria has sought the extradition of the respondent. The remarkable background to the proceedings is as follows. The respondent is the former private secretary to the Bulgarian Prosecutor General to whom we shall refer as Filchev. The EAW alleges that in February 2000 the respondent was principal in an offence of murder committed as a joint enterprise with Plamen Kalaydjiev (her former husband), Orlin Avramov, and Nikolai Kolev. It is alleged that the conspirators met at the Kalaydjiev home where it was agreed that they would proceed to an apartment occupied by Ms Nadazheda Georgieva where Ms Georgieva would be killed. Ms Georgieva was also a secretary to Prosecutor General Filchev. The prosecutor's case is that Nikolai Kolev, also a senior Bulgarian prosecutor, gave advice to the conspirators as to how to remove evidence of the killing. It is alleged in the EAW that he "offered them protection after the murder, speaking up for them and building an alibi in view of his influence as Prosecutor at the General Prosecution [sic] of the Republic of Bulgaria". The EAW continues that, pursuant to the arrangements made, the respondent together with Kalaydjiev and Avramov entered Ms Georgieva's flat and, while Kalaydjiev and Avramov held her down, the respondent killed Ms Georgieva with a weapon akin to a butcher's cleaver. It is alleged that following the murder Ms Georgieva's lawyer's bag containing documents, a dictaphone, cassettes with recordings, a Motorola mobile telephone and the sum of $4,000 was stolen. The allegation of theft is a late addition to the case against the defendants. Mr Filchev has been variously referred to in the papers as Prosecutor General, Chief General Prosecutor, and Bulgarian Chief Prosecutor. We shall continue to refer to his office as that of Prosecutor General.
It is the respondent's assertion that she has no personal knowledge of the murder of Ms Georgieva. She believes that she is the victim of a campaign by former Prosecutor General Filchev against Nikolai Kolev, herself and others to frame them for the murder. Mr Filchev was Prosecutor General for Bulgaria between 1999 and 2006. He is associated with the former communist party in Bulgaria. There have been consistent and prolonged allegations against Mr Filchev of corruption in public office. The following allegations have been widely reported in the Bulgarian press, television and other media: that he used his position to protect his brother from accusations of fraud; blackmail of magistrates, politicians and journalists; acceptance of bribes; corrupt prosecution of his political and business opponents, including former Supreme Court Prosecutor Nikolai Kolev. As Prosecutor General Mr Filchev was immune from prosecution. In 2001 and 2002 there was a trial of strength between the Ministry of Justice and the Prosecutor General over reforms of the Prosecutor General's office. In circumstances to which we shall need to refer in more detail Nikolai Kolev became one of Prosecutor General Filchev's main and implacable opponents, disclosing and threatening to disclose examples of his illegal activities. On 18 December 2002, the Supreme Judicial Council urged Mr Filchev to resign. On 30 December 2002 Nikolai Kolev was gunned down in front of his home in central Sofia. The circumstances were such that Mr Filchev was publicly accused of being implicated in the killing. The scandalous state of the office of prosecutor in Bulgaria was the subject of critical comment by the United States Ambassador on 10 December 2004. The National Union of Bulgarian Prosecutors issued a statement demanding Mr Filchev's immediate resignation. The German and Dutch ambassadors and the European Affairs Minister joined the criticism of Prosecutor General Filchev. The EU Affairs Minister described Bulgaria as suffering from "a non-functioning judiciary" and was not fit for EU membership. Amid continuing criticism of the politicisation of the Prosecutor's office Mr Filchev resigned in February 2006. Mr Filchev was appointed Bulgarian ambassador to Kazakhstan. In June 2006 he refused to attend the Sofia Military Court to answer questions concerning the discovery of intelligence devices in his flat. In June 2008 Mr Filchev was, at his own request, relieved of his post as ambassador. He returned to Bulgaria where he continued to comment publicly upon events during his term as Chief Prosecutor including the prosecution of the respondent and her co-accused.
Habeas Corpus application Divisional Court 9 October 2009
The first request for extradition was made on 16 July 2001 under the hand of the Ministry of Justice in the Republic of Bulgaria. The request was made by the Public Prosecutor General of the Republic of Bulgaria, Nicholai Filchev to the then Home Secretary Mr David Blunkett. A warrant for the respondent's arrest was issued on 13 November 2001 in Bow Street Magistrates Court. The respondent had fled Bulgaria on 17 August 2000 claiming that threats had been made to her life by Prosecutor General Filchev. She claimed asylum in the United Kingdom in October 2003 but the claim remained undetermined, presumably because Bulgaria joined the European Union. The respondent was arrested pursuant to the warrant on 21 November 2007. Following her arrest an application for a writ of habeas corpus was issued and the matter was considered by the Divisional Court (Scott Baker LJ and Cranston J) on 9 October 2009. Judgment was handed down on 4 November 2009. The court was provided with two detailed witness statements, one from the respondent and the other from Victor Banev, an advocate in private practice in Sofia, who was acting for one of the respondent's co-accused in the trial which had commenced in the respondent's absence. In her witness statement the respondent claimed that in March 1999 she had witnessed threats made personally by Mr Filchev to two prosecutor colleagues, Nikolai Kolev and a Mr Jambov. She claimed that Mr Filchev threatened to kill them if they did not close investigation files into two cases, one involving a substantial sum of money transferred to a foreign bank and another into missing weapons. The respondent claimed that she was told by Mr Filchev that if she disclosed anything of what she had witnessed she would regret it for the rest of her life. Believing that she was in league with Prosecutors Kolev and Jambov to damage him, Mr Filchev continued to threaten her until, in the autumn of 1999, she resigned. She claims that she was the victim of anonymous calls. When she reported the continued harassment to the police Mr Filchev intervened personally and threatened her with a pistol. The following day she says that she was visited at home by two men in civilian clothes and subjected to a beating which caused her rib injuries and damage to her liver and a kidney. She was threatened that she should say nothing against Mr Filchev.
The respondent says that in early 2000 Nadejda Georgieva invited the respondent to her flat. According to the respondent Ms Georgieva confided that the respondent was in danger. Ms Georgieva was in possession of high quality audio surveillance equipment. She played tapes of conversations with Mr Filchev which she claimed secretly to have recorded as her "insurance policy" against Mr Filchev. The respondent believes that Prosecutors Kolev and Jambov were provided with the tapes. At a press conference in February 2000 Prosecutors Kolev and Jambov revealed the state of their investigations into Mr Filchev's illegal activities and abuse of power. The murder of Ms Georgieva took place at the end of February 2000. In early March the respondent says that she went voluntarily to the police to inform them of what she knew about the incriminating evidence which had been in the victim's possession. She was shown photographs of the scene. She claims that as soon as she mentioned the possible involvement of Mr Filchev she was interrogated, fingerprinted and hair and saliva samples were taken. She was told that the purpose was to eliminate her from enquiries. She was asked to take a lie detector test and did so. To her surprise the test was attended by a panel of 11 or 12 people. She was subjected to harsh lighting conditions and she was repeatedly asked whether she knew how Ms Georgieva had been killed. It was, she says, a trick question because she had been informed by the investigators of the nature of Ms Georgieva's injuries and had been shown photographs of the scene. She claims that a chair was thrown at her by Investigator Oleg Ianchev. She was insulted and...
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