Skopje, 23 August 2022 (MIA) – Justice Minister Nikola Tupanchevski will propose to the government that an ad-hoc body be formed as a temporary solution until the new Law on Associations and Foundations is adopted, he said Tuesday in response to a reporter's question on whether it was possible to stop controversial Bulgarian associations from being formed in the country. “My proposal would be to create an ad-hoc body, which would be interdepartmental and give opinions on the type of historical figure, or the way the associations are being established. In that sense I think we will reduce the potential for abuse of the names of certain controversial historical figures,” Minister Tupanchevski said. On Aug. 15, the Ministry of Justice announced a working group meeting to discuss the Law on Associations and Foundations, after the issue of granting approvals for the registration of associations bearing the names of controversial historical figures emerged. “The purpose of these amendments to the law is to improve the legal framework in terms of provisions relating to the status of an organization of public interest, registration of civil society organizations, defining the status of non-profit organizations, as well as the way of their financing. The current legal framework, with careful reference to the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, is sufficient for the competent institutions, if the name of an organization including a certain controversial historical figure is called into question, to monitor and evaluate essentially both the program and the actions of the organization and its members before making any decision to ban registration or ban activities,” the Justice Ministry said. In regards to the amendments of the Law on Execution of Sanctions, Tupanchevski said the provision and the way the prison sentence was served had to be specified. The topic of “prison tourism” and the use of the legal opportunity to serve prison sentences in the Struga prison, which is an open jail, emerged in the public after former director of the Administration for Security and Counter Intelligence Sasho Mijalkov and businessman Orce Kamchev changed their home addresses to Ohrid. This gave them the legal basis to serve their sentences in the Struga jail. Mijalkov, who struck a deal with the prosecution for undeclared property in the “Empire” case, reported to the Struga prison on Monday to serve his three-year sentence. ad/mr/