Bulgaria has banned law attorney Toni Menkinoski from entering the country until 2036, saying that the official document he received stated that he allegedly posed a threat to the national security of the Republic of Bulgaria.
At a press conference on Sunday, Menkinoski expressed doubts that such a measure is directly related to his work as an attorney representing Macedonians in Bulgaria before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg and stressed that the accusation is serious, but was made without specific justification and without prior legal proceedings. The ban was handed to him on March 6 upon entering Bulgaria.
“When crossing the border, the people who worked there could not pass my passport at all. They asked me to move my car to the side and told me that they had received a notice from Sofia that they had to detain me because they needed to get some documents. After half an hour of waiting at the border, they gave me these documents and put a black stamp on my passport,” said Menkinoski.
According to the lawyer, this decision is shameful for Bulgaria, but also for the European Union, and he believes that it intimidates lawyers and directly interferes with the independence of the legal profession.
As he says, instead of implementing the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, the Bulgarians are taking measures that can be interpreted as pressure on lawyers.
“Bulgaria must implement all 14 rulings, that is, recognize the right of Macedonians to have their own clubs, their own political party and their own identification. Now this is an expression of powerlessness, wanting to show strength through me by not allowing entry to their lawyer who represents them before the European Court of Human Rights,” Menkinoski told reporters.
He indicated that he would use all legal and institutional mechanisms to challenge this decision. The case will also be submitted to the Commissioner for Human Rights, the European Parliament, the OSCE, and the United Nations, as well as international organizations that monitor the situation with human rights and the independence of the legal profession.
