Ekaterina Trendafilova (Bulgarian: Екатерина Трендафилова; born 20 June 1953) is a Bulgarian lawyer and judge with international and domestic experience. She is currently serving as the first President of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers – a position to which she was appointed in December 2016 for a four-year term and took her office on 12 January 2017.
Mandate at the International Criminal Court
Prior to her appointment to the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, President Trendafilova was elected a Judge of the International Criminal Court with most votes at the first round of elections. During her mandate at the International Criminal Court, she served between 2006 and 2015 as member of Pre-Trial Chambers I, II and III; Presiding Judge of Pre-Trial Chamber II; President of the Pre-Trial Division; ad hoc Judge of the Appeals Division sitting on interlocutory appeals and on the final appeals in the cases of the Prosecutor v. Thomas Lubanga Dyilo (on both judgments - on the merits of the criminal case and on reparations for victims) and the Prosecutor v. Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui. She was assigned to various situations and cases before the Court (Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Darfur, Uganda, Kenya, Mali). She also served as a member of the Advisory Committee on Legal Texts and of the Working Group on Lessons Learned.
Notable legal opinions and decisions
Together with her colleagues of Pre-Trial Chamber II, Judge Trendafilova made the landmark decision that saw President Uhuru Kenyatta, his Deputy William Ruto, former Head of Civil Service Francis Muthaura and journalist Joshua Sang committed to trial in January 2012. As a Single Judge, Trendafilova issued innovative decisions in an attempt to optimise the conduct of pre-trial proceedings, including by devising new streamlined systems for the application and participation in the proceedings of victims of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Ruto and others case; Muthaura and others case and in the Ntaganda case. Judge Trendafilova addressed for the first time at the International Criminal Court the issue whether members of armed groups engaged in a non-international armed conflict may be held accountable for war crimes, in particular rape and sexual slavery, committed against fellow fighters; and whether the war crime of intentionally attacking civilians may be committed through conduct other than the traditional shelling or bombarding, such as by raping, destruction of civilian properties and pillaging towns and villages in the course of military operations.
In February 2015, sitting in the Appeals Chamber, Judge Trendafilova dissented from the decision to uphold the Trial Chamber’s acquittal of Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui, a militia leader of commanding fighters who destroyed the village of Bogoro in eastern Congo in 2003, raping and hacking to death some 200 people, including children. The original 2012 trial judgment had been only the second verdict in the court's history and the first time it had cleared a suspect. Judge Trendafilova argued that the Appeals Chamber should have ordered a retrial because of errors by the Trial Chamber, saying that vital evidence was disregarded.
Activities related to legal reform
Ekaterina Trendafilova is active in the field of legal reform. In 2016, she consulted the Parliament of Kazakhstan on possible reforms of the Kazakh criminal justice system in light of the contemporary trends in the field. Between 2004 and 2006, she was appointed expert of the European Commission CARDS Regional Project “Establishment of an Independent, Reliable and Functioning Judiciary and Enhancing the Judicial Co-Operation in the Western Balkans”, which involved field missions to Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia with a view to formulating recommendations for judicial reforms. She was an expert with the PHARE Twinning project (Bulgaria–Austria) on the “Execution of the Reform Strategy of the Judiciary in Bulgaria. Access to Justice”.
Trendafilova contributed to the legal reform in Bulgaria. In 1998-1999 she was the head of the working group on the reform of the Bulgarian Criminal Procedure Code in line with European and international standards for efficient administration of justice and an effective protection of human rights. She chaired the Criminal Division of the Legislative Consultative Council with the President of the Bulgarian Parliament. Within the purview of the criminal justice reform, Trendafilova was invited to the International Visitor Leadership Program (Criminal Justice Issues), hosted by the US Department of State with working visits to judicial and law enforcement institutions in Washington, New York, Salt Lake City, Denver, San Diego.