Caretaker Justice Minister Calls Supreme Judicial Council Meeting to Consider the Appointment of New Acting Prosecutor General

Caretaker Justice Minister Andrey Yankulov has convened a plenary session of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) on 26 February 2026, the ministry’s press office announced on February 20.

The sole item on the agenda is the appointment of an acting Prosecutor General.

In his rationale, Minister Yankulov referred to the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Cassation’s opinion that, after 21 July 2025, Bulgaria will not have a legitimate acting Prosecutor General. He emphasised that a situation in which the country’s top judges do not recognise the Prosecutor General is unacceptable in a rule-of-law state.

“I have repeatedly stated — and naturally this was also a standard position of our government — that the current state of justice in Bulgaria is intolerable. For over six months, Bulgaria has effectively had no legitimate Prosecutor General. The Prosecutor General is an extremely important figure in our criminal justice system, vested with significant authority, tasked with ensuring the consistent and correct application of the law by all prosecutors. When such a legitimate figure is absent, the justice system faces a profound crisis,” Yankulov told reporters.

Andrey Yankulov also said he was prepared to make use of the opportunity to nominate a specific candidate for acting Prosecutor General, should it become necessary to do so. However, he recalled that such a nomination could also be put forward by three members of the Prosecutors’ Chamber of the Supreme Judicial Council.

For more than six months, the Prosecutor's Office — one of the state’s most important institutions with key powers in law enforcement — has been operating without the guarantees necessary to ensure the consistent and correct application of the law by all prosecutors, guarantees that the Constitution vests in the office of the Prosecutor General. This undermines public trust, not only in the institution itself but in Bulgaria’s justice system as a whole.

“During his almost three-year illegitimate ‘de facto mandate’, Borislav Sarafov has not taken any actions that build public or professional trust in his managerial abilities. He has failed to fulfil any of the key commitments he made upon taking office. For example, he promised to cleanse the Prosecutor's Office of the ‘Eight Dwarfs’ parallel justice network, the dismantling of which, according to him, is ‘a key stake for the normal functioning of the entire prosecution institution’,” Yankulov stated.

The Ministry of Justice notes that, to date, nothing related to the ‘Eight Dwarfs’ affair has been convincingly resolved under the leadership of Borislav Sarafov.

The minister’s request sets out detailed reasons why he believes the SJC plenary is the competent body to address the matter.