Бележки по Закона за екстрадицията от юни 2005 г.
Notes on the Bulgarian Extradition Law of June 2005

Summary/Abstract: Now extradition in Bulgaria is governed not by the Criminal Procedure Code but by a separate law which aims to avoid any mistaken application of principles and norms designed for criminal proceedings. At the same time the new extradition law reveals some serious flaws. First of all, the law in question requires without any justification that the Minister of Justice recognize as a condition for extradition the existence of reciprocity with the requesting country. Actually, such an act of the Minister of Justice is just another, separate condition for extradition. Most often, it is provided for in the national laws of countries where reciprocity is not a condition for extradition. Further­ more, the act of the Minister of Justice can only permit the opening of extradition proceedings but it cannot resolve all other issues where the reciprocity approach is applicable. Second, the new extradition law determines dual criminality (another condition for extradition) as one in the concrete sense only. Thus, it has not complied with the recommendations and worldwide tendency to accept the idea of dual criminality in the abstract sense as well. Third, the new extradition law envisages the granting of asylum to foreigners as a mandatory ground for the refusal of extradition without any exception whatsoever. Actually, the ground for refusal of extradition is statistically exceptional because it is applicable only in few cases where extradition is requested under reciprocity. If there is an extradition treaty with the requesting country, the asylum granted to the wanted person may not exclude his/her extradition.

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