site.btaCitizens Protest Outside Supreme Judicial Council, Call for Resignation of Acting Prosecutor General

Citizens gathered for a protest in front of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) on Thursday, calling for the resignation of acting Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov. The event was organized via Facebook by the Justice for Everyone initiative.

There was an increased police presence in the area, with checkpoints set up on some nearby streets. Protesters occupied only the sidewalks in front of the SJC building, and traffic in the area remained unrestricted.

The demonstrators chanted slogans such as “Sarafov out,” “We don’t want the SJC to serve a pig,” and “Every day will be like this until the resignation.”

Protesters threw eggs and plush rabbit toys at the SJC building. In 2025, Georgi Cholakov, who served as acting President of the Supreme Administrative Court, distributed plush rabbits to new administrative judges appointed or promoted during his term.

Alexander Tanev of the Students Against the Mafia association said that they submitted a student proclamation to the SJC registry, after failing to deliver it to Sarafov. “In it, we demand that the SJC uphold the law. According to the law, Sarafov has no right to serve as Prosecutor General,” Tanev said. In addition to the proclamation, he also left a plush rabbit toy at the registry.

Protests calling for Sarafov’s resignation were also held on Wednesday in Sofia, Varna and Plovdiv. The rallies were organized by Justice for Everyone and Students Against the Mafia.

Speaking to the media during the protest on Wednesday, lawyer Emil Georgiev of Justice for Everyone said that the protest organizers insist on including an agenda item concerning Sarafov in the SJC first plenary session for the year. The session is scheduled to begin at 9:30 am on Thursday.

Georgiev said that the Constitutional Court refused to consider Sarafov’s opinions in constitutional cases, which means it regarded him as lacking legitimacy. He noted that Sarafov’s continued holding of the post amounted to a clear violation of the law. The organizers do not expect Sarafov to be replaced, which is why they are seeking to prompt such a change, Georgiev added.

Sarafov has been acting Prosecutor General since June 2023, following the dismissal of the former officeholder Ivan Geshev. As the law entered into force on January 21, 2025, legal experts and a ruling of the Supreme Court of Cassation (SCC) consider his six-month term to have expired on July 21, after which the SJC should have appointed a new acting Prosecutor General. Instead, the Prosecutors College of the SJC ruled that the limitation applies only to the next acting official, effectively allowing Sarafov to remain indefinitely. A regular procedure to elect a new Prosecutor General cannot be launched either, because the mandate of the SJC itself expired back in October 2022. The Judges Association has submitted a list of relevant court rulings to the Supreme Court, showing that the majority of judicial panels consider Sarafov’s mandate to have ended after July 21. Although the SCC’s Criminal Chamber has internally adopted a position that Sarafov lacks legitimacy after that date, this decision is not an interpretative ruling and therefore is not legally binding on other courts. Meanwhile, the issue of Sarafov’s legitimacy is also before the Constitutional Court. The case was initiated by the Varna Court of Appeal, which is asking the Constitutional Court to strike down the six-month limitation, arguing that the SJC inaction has created an unacceptable legal vacuum.