Sarafov steps down from acting Prosecutor-General’s post

Borislav Sarafov said on April 22 that he was stepping down from the post of acting Prosecutor-General with immediate effect.

The announcement was made in a letter to the Supreme Judicial Council’s Prosecutorial College, posted on the website of the Supreme Judicial Council about 30 minutes before a scheduled meeting of the college was due to start.

Sarafov has been the subject of repeated attempts to dislodge from him from the post to which he was appointed in June 2023, on the grounds that his continued tenure is illegal.

These attempts have been based on legislative amendments that restricted the terms of office of acting heads of top judicial posts to six months.

The calls were stepped up again in the aftermath of ex-president Roumen Radev’s decisive victory in Bulgaria’s April 19 early parliamentary elections, with one of Radev’s campaign promises having been to reform the judiciary, including through the ouster of Sarafov.

Sarafov, in his April 22 letter, said: “In June 2023, I assumed this responsibility in an extremely complicated institutional and socio-political environment, marked by tension, erosion of public trust, and attempts to involve the Prosecutor’s Office in processes outside its constitutional functions”.

He claimed that he made “consistent efforts for institutional stabilization, professional consolidation and restoration of trust in our activities”.

Sarafov said that he had made his decision “some time ago, after careful consideration of all legal and institutional consequences”.

“I postponed its announcement in order to prevent further destabilization of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Bulgaria in the context of a prolonged and severe political crisis, which, I hope, as the majority of Bulgarian citizens have demonstrated, has this time found its successful resolution”.

Unfortunately, in the past months, the Prosecutor’s Office has continued to be subjected to “unfounded and unlawful pressure,” he said.

“In addition, I have become the subject of a targeted smear and defamatory campaign. Nevertheless, I have put the interests of the institution, to which I have dedicated more than three decades of my professional career, above all else, and have taken on the responsibility to continue performing my functions.”

Caretaker Justice Minister Andrei Yankulov, who has been at the centre of recent attempts to get the Prosecutorial College to remove Sarafov – attempts that Sarafov’s allies have resisted – said on April 21 that Sarafov was in office unlawfully and should resign.

Yankulov said that every extra day that Sarafov remained in office pushed the judicial system into an extremely critical situation for the rule of law in Bulgaria.

The caretaker Justice Minister said that all legal powers he had in the case of Sarafov had been exhausted and the easiest way out was for Sarafov to resign.

Yankulov rejected a call by Ivan Demerdzhiev, a former caretaker Interior Minister and who appears to have won election as an MP on the list of Radev’s party, for the caretaker Justice Minister to order security personnel to prevent Sarafov entering the building of the Prosecutor’s Office.

After the April 19 elections, caretaker Prime Minister Andrei Gyurov said that most of the cases that the Interior Ministry had referred to the Prosecutor’s Office about alleged vote-buying in the elections had been blocked by prosecutors.

Gyurov’s statement is in line with criticisms that the Prosecutor’s Office has been acting on a selective basis.

For months, Sarafov has been the subject of large-scale street protests demanding his resignation, just as before there were large-scale street protests against his predecessor, Ivan Geshev, also on the grounds that Geshev allegedly was serving individual political interests.