Prosecutors' College of the Supreme Judicial Council Decided Not to Initiate Disciplinary Proceedings against Borislav Sarafov

The decision on whether to initiate disciplinary proceedings against Borislav Sarafov will be taken in a week at the earliest. This is the deadline within which the caretaker Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice Andrei Yankulov has to remove, according to the Prosecutorial Collegium, deficiencies in his request for the disciplinary dismissal of Sarafov.

A decision on whether to initiate disciplinary proceedings against Borislav Sarafov is expected to be taken no earlier than next week.

This is the deadline given for caretaker Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice Andrey Yankulov to remove, according to the Prosecutors' College, deficiencies in his request for the disciplinary dismissal of Sarafov.

Until last week, Sarafov was acting Prosecutor General. He has since stepped down from that role and currently remains head of the National Investigation Service and Deputy Prosecutor General.

The Prosecutors' College has also set additional requirements for the applicant to supplement the proposal for initiating disciplinary proceedings.

Andrey Yankulov has requested disciplinary proceedings over actions and inactions of Borislav Sarafov over the past six months.

Part of the request concerns the Prosecutor's Office’s response to a statement by the Criminal Proceedings Chamber of the Supreme Court of Cassation that applications for reopening criminal proceedings, signed by Sarafov after the end of July last year, should not be upheld. This follows the expiry of the six-month period during which he was allowed to serve as acting Prosecutor General.

The request also cites instances in which Sarafov allegedly sought the removal of judges from cases directly affecting him as a person, rather than in his official capacity as a representative of the Prosecutor's Office.

Andrey Yankulov, caretaker Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice, noted that at the time the request for disciplinary proceedings was submitted, Borislav Sarafov was effectively serving as acting Prosecutor General, and questioned whether the subsequent change in his status should be grounds for returning or halting the procedure.

“At the moment when the proposal was submitted, he was in fact acting Prosecutor General, and now this change has occurred. I do not know whether that can be a reason for the process not to move forward,” he said.

Yankulov added that another legal dispute concerns Sarafov’s status itself — whether he was legitimately serving as acting Prosecutor General — and whether his actions during that period were validly performed in office.

“It is certainly a case. I said from day one that it is a complex case, which presents challenges to the institutions,” he concluded.