Bulgaria deputy prosecutor-general resigns
Boiko Naidenov, who heads Bulgaria’s National Investigative Service, resigned on November 4 as head of the service and as an investigative magistrate, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement. Naidenov is also deputy prosecutor-general ex officio as the head of the investigative service.
Naidenov claimed personal reasons for his resignation and declined to give further details when pressed by local media.
A report by news website Mediapool.bg claimed that Naidenov’s decision was prompted by his poor relationship with prosecutor-general Sotir Tsatsarov.
Naidenov had been the head of the investigative service since 2007 and was re-elected to a new term in 2012. Before that appointment he had served in the Supreme Prosecution of Cassation and Sofia city prosecutor in 2005/06; most of his career was spent in the ranks of the military prosecution, which he joined in 1991 and where he rose to Sofia district prosecutor.
Naidenov acted briefly as interim prosecutor-general last year when Boris Velchev ended his term early following his appointment to the Constitutional Court. Naidenov was briefly considered the front-runner to succeed Velchev because of his close ties with the outgoing prosecutor-general, the Mediapool.bg report said, having even served as Velchev spokesperson in 2006/07.
His appointment as interim prosecutor-general on November 6 2012, however, stirred controversy. The legal quandary was outlined by two members of the Supreme Judicial Council elected from the ranks of prosecutors – Roumen Boev and former deputy chief prosecutor Kamen Sitnilski. Even though a deputy chief prosecutor by virtue of his office, Naidenov did not have the authority to oversee the work of prosecutors because investigative magistrates were subordinate to prosecutors in Bulgaria’s legal system, Boev said at the time.
In the aftermath, Naidenov did not make a bid for the prosecutor-general job, which went to Tsatsarov in late December 2012.
(Photo: Jason Morisson/sxc.hu)
