Bulgaria’s acting prosecutor-general Sarafov nominated to get position full time
Bulgaria’s acting prosecutor-general Borislav Sarafov was the sole person put forth to replace Ivan Geshev as prosecutor-general before the October 10 deadline for nominations at the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC).
The nomination was made at the last sitting of the SJC possible, by three members of the prosecutors bench of the council, in a proceeding that was resumed last month to name a successor for Geshev, who was dismissed half-way through his seven-year term in June 2023.
According to the SJC’s schedule, the vote on the nomination is due on January 16 2025, but it could be scuppered still should a newly-elected legislature pass a bill that bans a line-up of the SJC whose term has expired – as is the case now – to elect a prosecutor-general or the head of one of the two high courts.
SJC’s decision to resume the process to elect a prosecutor-general has encountered opposition both from political parties and parts of the judiciary. Critics have said that the current line-up of the SJC, which elected Geshev and firmly backed him – until it did not – should not elect his successor.
The SJC suspended the process to elect a new prosecutor-general in July 2023, after Geshev lodged a Constitutional Court appeal against his dismissal.
Geshev was sacked for bringing the judiciary into disrepute in June 2023, after surviving two previous motions on the same grounds in 2021 and 2022. His former deputy Borislav Sarafov was later appointed as acting prosecutor-general.
(Photo: Clive Leviev-Sawyer)
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