site.btaOpposition Group Will Urge Parliamentary Committee to Act Immediately for Acting Prosecutor General's Removal

Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) will urge the National Assembly Constitutional and Legal Affairs Committee to take urgent action for the removal of Borislav Sarafov as acting prosecutor general, Co-Floor Leader Nadejda Iordanova told journalists here on Friday. The largest opposition parliamentary group will press the Committee to consider a draft declaration they moved on January 13, insisting that the Supreme Judicial Council elect a new acting prosecutor general and that Sarafov vacate office immediately.

"The Legal Affairs Committee agenda includes the bills on the closure of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), which has committed a lot of outrages, including the unlawful detention in custody of the Mayor of Varna," Iordanova pointed out, adding that these "outrages" became possible thanks to support from Sarafov's prosecution service and claiming that the acting prosecutor general "has been in office unlawfully for more than half a year now".

The legitimacy of Sarafov's continued tenure is contested by a number of Bulgarian courts, which argue that, under amendments to the Judicial System Act of early 2025, his capacity as acting prosecutor general lapsed on July 21, 2025. For its part, the Prosecutors' Chamber of the Supreme Judicial Council argues that this time limit does not apply to Sarafov because his election in June 2023 predated the revisions in question, which do not make specific provisions for this situation. A case on the matter is pending before the Constitutional Court.

CC-DB Deputy Floor Leader Bozhidar Bozhanov said that several months ago he and Lena Borislavova MP of the same group alerted the prosecution service about ACC Chair Anton Slavchev and other ACC personnel having pressured witnesses to make false statements in the high-profile cases of Varna Mayor Blagomir Kotsev and Sofia Deputy Mayor Nikola Barbutov, who have been arrested and held for months on corruption charges that their supporters dismiss as trumped-up and politically motivated. Bozhanov described as "absurd" the decision of the prosecution service to ask the ACC to investigate itself about the alleged witness pressuring.  

Bozhanov specified that his parliamentary group insists that mobile telephone operators do not erase the traffic data on Slavchev's communications after the expiry of the six-month statutory period. They also want to see all records on the preliminary inquiry that the prosecution service carried out in response to their alert. Thirdly, they urge GERB and its leader Boyko Borissov to second a motion for the dismissal of Slavchev, whom the opposition sees as "the main proponent of the interests of [MRF-New Beginning leader] Delyan Peevski in the ACC".

For her part, Borislavova said that experts of the Renew Europe Group in the European Parliament are expected in Bulgaria by the end of January. They will inquire into the way the ACC, the Interior Ministry, the prosecution service and criminal judges have handled the cases of Kotsev, Barbutov and other representatives of Continue the Change, whom she described as "persecuted political opponents". Borislavova argued that GERB and MRF-New Beginning seek the ACC's closure right now "in order to cover up the tracks".