site.btaConstitutional Court Will Examine Case on Acting Prosecutor General's Term

Bulgaria's Constitutional Court on Thursday issued a ruling admitting to examination a petition from the Varna Court of Appeal regarding the constitutionality of a Judicial System Act provision on the term in office of an acting prosecutor general or supreme court president. 

All 12 Constitutional Court members attended the meeting. Nine of them voted in favour of the ruling, and judges Nadezhda Dzelepova, Desislava Atanasova and Orlin Kolev expressed dissenting opinions. Yanaki Stoilov will be a judge rapporteur in the case. 

The constitutional case was insitited on January 20, 2026. The Varna Court asked the constitutional jurisdiction to interpret a new paragraph added in the law, effective January 21, 2025, which limited to six months the period during which a particular individual can serve as acting prosecutor general or acting president of the Supreme Court of Cassation (SCC) or of the Supreme Administrative Court, regardless of whether this period is uninterrupted or not. The Constitutional Court is supposed to determine whether this provision is compatible with the basic law and whether it applies only ex nunc or also to persons who have been assigned such functions before its entry into force.

The petition was prompted by a lingering controversy over the legitimacy of the continued tenure of Borislav Sarafov as acting prosecutor general. A number of Bulgarian courts argue that under the Judicial System Act amendments in question, his capacity as acting prosecutor general lapsed on July 21, 2025, i.e. six months after the entry into force of these provisions. For its part, the Prosecutors' Chamber of the Supreme Judicial Council argues that this time limit does not apply to Sarafov because his election on June 16, 2023 predated the revision in question, which does not make specific provisions for this situation. 

In particular, the Varna Court of Appeal has been approached by Sarafov with a motion to reopen a criminal case, and the Court wants to know whether he was still vested with the power to do so.

In early October 2025, two SCC panels refused to institute proceedings on motions entered by Sarafov for reopening of criminal cases, arguing that he does not legitimately perform the functions of prosecutor general.