Caretaker Justice Minister Andrey Yankulov on the “Sarafov” Case: Prosecutors' College Has So Far Shown Reluctance to Resolve the Issue

The Prosecutors' College of the Supreme Judicial Council is set to discuss a proposal by caretaker Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Minister, Andrey Yankulov, for the appointment of an acting Prosecutor General.

The item was added to the agenda after the plenary of the Supreme Judicial Council ruled that the Prosecutors' College is the competent body to decide on the matter. It appears as the final item on the agenda of the meeting, which is being attended by Yankulov.

The issue arises following legislative changes limiting the term of officials temporarily performing the duties of the Prosecutor General to a maximum of six months.

Before the meeting began, Yankulov said he expected the college to postpone consideration of the matter until a ruling by the Constitutional Court of Bulgaria, which has already been asked to assess the constitutionality of the legislative amendments.

He commented that the practice so far shows a reluctance to resolve the issue.

“So far, this appears to be the behaviour we have observed from the Prosecutors' College — a reluctance to deal with this issue. As a result, for nearly three years Mr Borislav Sarafov has remained acting Prosecutor General without any clarity as to when this temporary term of office will end. My view is that a decision on the merits is needed in order to end this serious crisis of the rule of law, but what will happen depends on the members of the Prosecutors' College and the Supreme Judicial Council,” Yankulov said.

He added that he would closely monitor the debate in order to decide whether to put forward a nomination for a person to perform the duties of acting Prosecutor General.

The minister also commented on the case involving temporarily suspended Bulgarian European Prosecutor Teodora Georgieva. He said he may request additional information from the Prosecutor's Office in order to assess whether there is sufficient evidence of a reasonable suspicion of involvement in a corruption offence.

However, he said, it was likely that the Prosecutor's Office would provide only part of the information in the case - namely the material supporting its thesis.

.