"The Prosecutor's Office is a command team. It complies with the powers that be. It should be replaced sooner rather than later". This was commented on by the former Minister of Justice Atanas Slavov to BNT. According to him, one of the reasons for the resignation of Borislav Sarafov as acting Prosecutor General is to avoid disciplinary liability.
As for Sarafov's resignation, he said: As usual, the prosecutor's office complies with the political situation. Sarafov saw that both the parliament and the caretaker government, especially the citizens who protested en masse at the end of last year, this is a wall that cannot be crossed, cannot be broken through. First. And second – the patrons, the patrons of Sarafov-Borisov and Peevski, have retreated. This means that his position at the top of the prosecutor's office has become impossible, unthinkable. It has been illegal and illegitimate for 9 months, but it has now become impossible to hold. And this is simply a change at the top, which is not a change in the system, however, and this is the problem."
The law must be for everyone, the former Minister of Justice emphasized. In his words, we are all equal before the law and this is a basic principle of the rule of law. "We saw that for 9 months the Prosecutor's College of the Supreme Judicial Council refused to implement the law, which was clear and which was implemented by the Judicial College. The law was adopted a year and 4 months ago - January 2025, it gave a 6-month mandate to the person performing the functions. The Prosecutor's College is a special team. I will remind you that when Mr. Sarafov was elected, as a minister, I challenged his election before the Supreme Administrative Court, then I requested a disciplinary procedure, which was denied.", said Slavov.
Slavov emphasized that the rules for electing the SJC must be changed. "Over the past few years, we have submitted specific proposals for changes in the composition of the SJC, and more - to change the rules for electing the SJC, so that we no longer have secret teams in the prosecutor's office or in the court. And this is our first task. On the very first day of the National Assembly, we will submit amendments to the Judiciary Act. They were also submitted to the National Assembly nine months ago, but were not considered. I hope that the new majority will support these changes, so that we can immediately proceed with the election of the SJC. The changes that we have already submitted and will submit again are aimed at electing authoritative public figures to the parliamentary quota of the SJC - people with professionalism and integrity, who are not dependent on political parties, not party loyalists, followers, but recognizable people in the professional community.", he further explained.
According to the former Minister of Justice, there should be clear criteria for candidates.
"And when, for example, it is not just the deputies who propose candidates, but they are nominated by the Supreme Bar Council, by the best law faculties in the country, by professional organizations of lawyers. So there is a way for independent, prepared, politically neutral people to enter, so that there will be no top command in the Prosecutor's Office again, and in the Supreme Judicial Council in general.", added Atanas Slavov.
When asked whether Sarafov should be held legally responsible for the situation that has arisen in recent months, Slavov replied: "Disciplinary responsibility should certainly have been sought, and that is why the Minister of Justice Yankulov also filed a request for disciplinary proceedings. Perhaps one of Sarafov's ideas for resigning at this very moment is precisely to not look into this disciplinary procedure in the Supreme Judicial Council. He should return as head of the National Investigation and as Deputy Prosecutor General. But the procedure for seeking disciplinary responsibility does not stop. The question is whether it will be brought to an end. We have seen that even the signals submitted to the special prosecutor investigating the Prosecutor General were blocked during these years. There were numerous signals, there are still pending signals. So the assessment is up to the authorities themselves - whether and to what extent they will implement judicial responsibility, if there are grounds for this.