Mr Petko Petkov

Mr Petko Petkov graduated from Sofia University as a Magister of Law. He was a junior judge at the Sofia District Court from 2005 until 2007 and since 2007 he is a judge at the Criminal Division at the Sofia Regional Court.

During his career as a criminal judge, he has worked on thousands of cases, and it has been a core rule in his work to always adhere to the principles of the ECHR and to the European Court of Human Rights case law.

From 2014 to the end of 2015, he was appointed as an expert for a Deputy Minister of Justice of the Republic of Bulgaria. During that period, he was responsible for representing the country before the European Court of Human Rights and provided methodological guidance and control over the activity of the Directorate within the Ministry. Apart from his duties related to establishing the modus operandi of the procedural representation before ECtHR, he was directly involved in drafting the legislative amendments related to the Judiciary.

From 2012 to 2015, he was a guest lecturer in Criminal Law and Criminal Procedures at the National Training Institute for the Judiciary, where he broadened and developed his knowledge at a more theoretical and academic level.

He joined EULEX Kosovo in 2017 as an International Criminal Judge, where he worked until the end of the executive mandate of the Mission in 2018. Currently, he is a Thematic Lead Monitor for Crimes under International Law in EULEX Kosovo.

Mr Petkov was appointed Substitute Member of the Human Rights Review Panel on 19 December 2018 and became a full Member as of 1 December 2023.