President Radev: Acting Prosecutor General Sarafov should be judged by his actions towards immunities and suspended cases of high-level corruption

• Acting Prosecutor General, Borislav Sarafov, should very quickly and clearly position himself - whether he will help certain political figures to “finish laundering each other” or whether he will take a position that will allow a quick return of justice, Radev believes.
• It is strange how a National Assembly torn by contradictions, with low public trust and low legitimacy will work for constitutional changes, the head of state said.
• If the Council of Ministers decides Bulgaria to join the initiative to provide ammunition to Ukraine, it will be a mistake, he said.
• He said the authorities in Skopje were not on the right path to the EU.

The reactions following the election of Borislav Sarafov as acting prosecutor-general raise suspicions that the parties represented in Parliament are looking to appoint their own man to the post. This is what President Rumen Radev commented.

"As far as Sarafov is concerned, we should judge him by his actions with regard to his attitude to immunities and to the suspended high-level corruption cases against representatives of the authorities. He needs to position himself very quickly and clearly - whether he will help certain political figures to “finish laundering each other”, or whether he will take a position that will allow justice to return quickly," the head of state said.

He called for all-round civilian scrutiny of the work of the acting Prosecutor General.

"We as a society must be extremely vigilant and exercise all possible scrutiny over the Acting Prosecutor General figure. Because his nomination does not go through the normal appointment procedure, does not go through these thorough deliberations on professional and moral qualities, and his appointment does not go through a presidential decree. At the same time, he enjoys all the powers of the Prosecutor General and can, under the current setting, remain in office indefinitely," the President said.

Radev also explained why he did not wait for the Constitutional Court's decision before issuing the decree to dismiss Ivan Geshev from the post.

"At a time of political upheaval, let us strictly adhere to the Constitution and the laws. That is what I did. How long do you suggest we wait - a month, a year? The referral to the Constitutional Court has not yet been admitted for consideration, it is not clear when it will be admitted, and there is no deadline. There is a similar decision regarding the expired term in office of the Inspectorate of the Supreme Judicial Council. There the decision is very clear - the expired term in office does not limit the powers," the Head of State said.

The amendments to the Constitution

President Rumen Radev called for extreme care to be taken with regard to the changes to the country's basic law and expressed hope that this would not serve as a screen to hide other intentions.

"It is strange how a National Assembly torn by contradictions, with low public trust and low legitimacy will work for these constitutional changes. And here we have to be very, very careful indeed. Remember how GERB wrote a new constitution in one night to appease the protest. Now they are going to write it in 10 days again under siege of public disgust. This leads one to suspect that there is another intention. And I hope the Constitution will not be used as a screen to cover up some intimate relations between parties or to be a panacea from our justice system captured by vested and partisan interests," the President said.

Arms for Ukraine

The President strongly opposed Bulgaria joining the European initiative to provide 1 million munitions to Ukraine.

"Both in Bulgaria and in Brussels I have always argued that Bulgaria should not interfere by supplying weapons for the conflict in Ukraine. You see that it is escalating, that it carries huge risks and puts our social systems to the test. If the Council of Ministers takes the decision, it will be a mistake. I do not support it," he said.

Relations with Skopje

North Macedonia is returning to the practice of lobbying European capitals and institutions to cover up its human rights violations, lack of reforms and lack of readiness to start EU membership negotiations, President Rumen Radev said, pointing out that this is not the right way.

"Lobbying is intensifying again at the moment, but Bulgaria will continue to work intensively with all European institutions, with our European partners, so that the decisions on the Republic of North Macedonia are not based on lobbying," the Head of State said.

***

Following the early dismissal of Ivan Geshev from the post of Prosecutor General, the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) Prosecutors’ College on Friday, June 16, decided that Borislav Sarafov, who until then was Deputy Prosecutor General and Head of the National Investigative Service, will be acting Prosecutor General. He will serve until a new Prosecutor General is elected by the SJC Plenum.

The members of the College decided that they were the body that should choose an acting Prosecutor General, not the Plenum of the Council. They accepted that this choice would be made from among the deputies of former Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev: Daniela Masheva, Krasimira Filipova, Desislava Pironeva and Borislav Sarafov.

Ognyan Damyanov, member of the Prosecutors’ College, said Sarafov comes first in order of seniority.

The Bulgarian Judges Association on June 19 called on the Plenum of the Supreme Judicial Council to elect a new acting Prosecutor General of Bulgaria.

The BJA described the decision of the SJC Prosecutors' College to elect Borislav Sarafov acting Prosecutor General as “the latest disgraceful decision, which seriously undermines the reputation of the judiciary”.

Over the past month, society has witnessed a struggle of groups and power centres outside the judiciary, carried out with the tools and means of the criminal process by the leadership of the Prosecutor's office. In the above-mentioned factual situation, the Prosecutor' College of the SJC has taken the liberty of replacing one of the main actors in this process with another, no less discredited.

With regard to Borislav Sarafov, there are justifiably serious doubts about his integrity, given the media reports about the meetings he held in the now defunct restaurant "The Eight Dwarfs" with persons declared wanted by the Ministry of the Interior. There are also doubts about his professional and moral qualities to hold, even temporarily, this position, especially in the period from 01 May 2023 until now - numerous misleading public statements, frequent and unexplained changes of position on fundamental professional issues, interference of his private life in his professional activities.

Last but not least, Borislav Sarafov is currently the subject of two notifications under Article 411a et seq. of the Penal Procedure Code (Chapter Thirty-one of the PPC on the existence of a legal reason for initiating an investigation against the Prosecutor General or his deputy) for acts committed in his capacity as Deputy Prosecutor General and Director of the National Investigation Service," the Union of Judges said.

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