The detention of a National Protection Service (NSO) officer after an incident with journalist Sonya Koltukliyeva was excessive, judge Atanaska Disheva, a member of the Supreme Judicial Council, said in an interview.

After a video of the incident spread, the authorities took action against the officer, who works at the NSO under an employment contract. The court has already ruled that he did not need to be held in custody.

Disheva said detention should not be used automatically whenever there is a report or sign of a crime. It should be used only when the law allows it. She called it a repressive measure, allowed only if the suspect could really flee or obstruct the investigation.

The judge believes there were no such grounds in the NSO officer's case. People should have been questioned and the facts clarified first, she said, and only then should detention have been considered.

Disheva declined to predict whether the man will be held criminally liable, as she knows the case only from the public video. She said it must be decided whether he used force after a provocation, and whether his conduct matched the situation and his powers.

The judge also spoke about several high-profile arrests and investigations in the week before the elections. The prime minister described the operation in Sungurlare as the start of action against crime and corruption. The authorities then moved in Belitsa and in the case of Kardzhali's mayor.

Disheva said the fight against crime deserves a welcome in all its forms, but institutions have limits in relation to one another. In general, the executive cannot make demands of the judiciary or carry out its demands. Prosecutors must follow the law strictly and not take political expectations or influence into account.

She recalled that under earlier governments, too, operations were publicly linked to political messages. The judge believes it is unacceptable for the police and prosecutors to serve goals outside their legal duties.

The mayors of Sungurlare and Belitsa, Dimitar Gavazov and Radoslav Revanski, remain in custody on charges of influence peddling. In October, the Regional Court in Burgas granted the prosecutors' request for the harshest measure, detention.

Their actions must be judged by the law and the facts of each case, not by public reaction, Disheva said.