site.btaUPDATED Prosecutors Chamber Instructs Justice Minister to Supplement Proposal for Disciplinary Proceedings against Sarafov

The Prosecutors Chamber of Bulgaria's Supreme Judicial Council gave caretaker Justice Minister Andrey Yankulov one week to supplement his proposal for the initiation of disciplinary proceedings against Deputy Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov.

The Chamber asked Yankulov to specify the position of the individual subject to the proposal and to submit additional information regarding one of the points in it. If the instructions are not complied with, the proposal will be left without consideration, the Prosecutors Chamber specified.

Speaking to the media, the Justice Minister argued that there are no such irregularities and that he will consider whether to remedy them or not. He explained that time for instituting disciplinary proceedings on the first two points of the proposal is lapsing.

Yankulov does not see a problem in the fact that Sarafov was acting prosecutor general when the proposal was submitted and is not at this point in time. The other point which the Prosecutors Chamber found non-conforming concerns an alert submitted by prosecutor Teodora Georgieva, and they says that evidence proving the facts needs to be presented. The Justice Minister explained that he was not referring to Georgieva's alert as proof of Sarafov’s breaches of discipline but cited a press release from the prosecution service and the documents attached to it regarding the suspended Bulgarian European Prosecutor.

At the end of March, Yankulov approached the Chamber with a proposal to launch proceedings in connection with actions and inactions by Sarafov, in his then capacity of a de facto acting Prosecutor General, which, according to the Justice Minister, constituted serious breaches of discipline warranting Sarafov's dismissal as the most severe disciplinary penalty. Yankulov cited five circumstances in support of his proposal.

On April 22, Sarafov resigned as acting prosecutor general and assumed his previous position as Deputy Prosecutor General and head of the National Investigation Service.