The work of Bulgaria's judiciary had not been at a satisfactory level, French ambassador in Sofia Etienne de Poncins was quoted as saying by Bulgarian-language daily Dnevnik on January 22 2010.

Addressing a roundtable discussion hosted by Bulgaria's Supreme Court of Cassation and the Union of Bulgarian Judges, dedicated to the issue of finding the balance between observing human rights and public expectations for effective justice, De Poncins said that in Bulgaria there was the feeling that defendants and those put on trial had more rights than victims of crime.

Whether the situation had started changing could be judged on the outcome on certain court cases, he said, singling out the outcome of the murder case of Bulgarian law student Martin Borilski in Paris in 2000. This case would be decisive for France's position on Bulgaria's judiciary.

Borilski was discovered dead in his Paris flat on July 20 2000. He had been stabbed more than 90 times and his skull smashed with a dumbbell. It took two years for Bulgarian authorities to put both Georgi Zhelyazkov and Stoyan Stoichkov, suspected by French police for the murder, on trial.

Both were later acquitted, as almost all evidence gathered by French police was dismissed by the defence as failing to comply with the Bulgarian penal procedure code. The case has been closely monitored by the French embassy.

In May 2009, the Supreme Court of Cassation returned the case to the Veliko Turnovo Court of Appeals and overruled the acquittals of Zhelyazkov and Stoichkov.

At the time, De Poncins welcomed the decision, which also returned the case to the French courts, starting two separate procedures, in a Bulgarian and a French court, presided over by two different judges.

The case is still to be reopened in France, while the next hearing in Bulgaria is scheduled for February 4 in Veliko Turnovo.