Fiches Belges

Request for police/criminal records 1.Form-official letter on the base of Articles 21 and 22 of The European Convention on mutual legal assistance on criminal matters - 1959. Free form letter from the Ministry of justice of the requesting country to the Ministry of justice of the requested country. 2.Other form-free letter from the EJN contact point of the requesting country to the EJN contact point of the requested country. Requirements about the content of the letter-reason why the requesting authorities need to have a criminal/police record- for instance a pending criminal proceedings, type crime, against whom etc. Urgency-to motivate the urgency – cases with detained persons, deadline, the approaching court hearing etc. 3.Another form-European Investigation Order with all necessary for this form requisites. Competent authority for its recognition and execution: 1. in the pre-trial proceedings - a prosecutor from the respective district or military-district prosecutor's office within whose judicial region the person resides; 2. in the court proceedings or in case the EIO is issued by an administrative authority - the respective district or military court within whose judicial region the person resides.

Directive 2014/41/EU on EIOs Non-EU countries - CoE European Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters (1959) The Bulgarian EIO Act

In case of EIO: 1. in the pre-trial proceedings - a prosecutor from the respective district or military-district prosecutor's office within whose judicial region the affected person resides; 2. in the court proceedings or in case the EIO is issued by an administrative authority - the respective district or military court within whose judicial region the affected person resides. In case of MLA request: - In the pre-trial stage: The Regional or the District PO in which area the affected person resides - depends on the type of crime; - In the trial stage: The Regional or the District Court in which area the person whose interrogation is requested resides- depends on the type of crime.

In case of EIO - The EIO should be accompanied by a translation into Bulgarian or English. In case of MLA request - for non-EU issuing state: Bulgarian language or one of the official languages of the Council of Europe. With regard to promptness and efficiency, it is recommended the requests/decisions to be accompanied by a translation into the Bulgarian language.

In case of EIO - The authority competent to execute the EIO is obliged to carry out the measure not later than 90 days from the date of the recognition of the legal instrument. If it is not possible to meet this time limit, the executing competent authority is obliged to inform the issuing authority of the reasons for the delay and, after consultation, an additional time necessary to execute the measure can be determined. In case of MLA request - for non-EU issuing state: A specific deadline is not envisaged.

The national rules are different in respect of cooperation within or outside of the EU - with respect to the competent Bulgarian authorities, the accepted languages and the terms for the execution of the relevant legal instrument.