President Rossen Plevneliev has moved to calm concerns about the legality of actions taken by former vice president Angel Marin in granting and revoking Bulgarian citizenship and granting pardons to prisoners during Marin’s second term of office – but lawyers are divided on the issue.
 
The legal question turns on the effect of former president Georgi Purvanov having not issued a decree delegating powers to Marin when their second term in the presidency started in 2006.

One view is that this renders illegitimate all the decisions taken by Marin on pardons and citizenship during his second term. The contrary view is that there was no need for a further decree because the first delegation of powers issued by Purvanov in 2002 had not been revoked.

Should there be a legal question mark over citizenships granted and taken away by Marin, the implications would be significant.

The number of Bulgarian citizenships granted in recent years has been on the rise. From 2006 to 2009, it rose from about 6000 a year to 9000 a year. Given the drive by the current Government to speed the process, more than 14 800 citizenships were granted in 2010 and more than 20 000 in 2011.

Citizenship applications are processed by the Justice Ministry – meaning that, ironically, for some time they were under the aegis of Margarita Popova, former justice minister and now the country’s Vice President. On taking office, Plevneliev issued a formal decree delegating to Popova powers over citizenship and pardons.

Drama around the issue has been generated by the case of Konstantin Tsiganov, a Russian alleged to be involved in organised crime, who was given Bulgarian citizenship in 2001. However, it was withdrawn in March 2010. Tsiganov, subject to an Interpol arrest warrant, was found by the State Agency for National Security to be a serious threat to national security. He spent several months in Bousmantsi detention centre for foreigners, pending processing of a deportation application.

Now, his lawyers have challenged the revocation of citizenship signed by Marin as invalid. Plevneliev said on January 30 that the issue had been discussed repeatedly by the former president and vice president as well as their legal advisers and the view was that a second decree had not been necessary. He said that the court’s decision was awaited but lawyers were of the view that decisions on citizenship already taken were not subject to challenge.

The topic had been blown out of proportion and speculation was uncalled for, Plevneliev said.

Further complicating matters is the view that the Supreme Administrative Court, which has been asked by Tsiganov’s lawyers to overturn Marin’s decree, is not competent to do so and actions by a head of state or vice president are subject to review solely by the Constitutional Court.