Today there was an unprecedented statement by prosecutor Vladimir Nikolov - former district prosecutor of Pleven and former head of the Association of Prosecutors in Bulgaria, who extremely categorically and clearly opposed directly on national air the illegitimate Borislav Sarafov. This very strong act will lead to serious consequences in the judicial system. He commented on this in the studio of "Panorama" Acting Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice Andrey Yankulov.
"This is an extremely powerful message that was broadcast to all prosecutors in Bulgaria. This was a request for authentic leadership in the system, which we have not seen for a long time and which we have been expecting to see for a long time. So this will also lead to clarification of key cases in the justice system, which have remained unclear for so long, because in order for them to be clarified, there must be an authentic voice from within that demands it. This voice was spoken today and cases such as "The Eight Dwarfs" and so on. for parallel justice, which could have been neglected in public until now, were now put in the center of public attention," Yankulov explained.
In his words, it remains to be seen how the Supreme Judicial Council will react to a clear request to consider the issue of appointing an interim prosecutor general.
"For the first time, this issue is being put directly before the plenum of the SJC, which must take some position. From now on, this topic cannot be pushed into the public space without an adequate position on it," he specified.
According to him, the caretaker government cannot carry out any profound judicial reform:
"However, here we are talking about an extremely simple institutional action, a clear statement that the currently de facto prosecutor general position is occupied by an illegitimate one. And this is a problem that has been identified by the Supreme Court, which does not recognize the Supreme Court of Cassation - its criminal panel, came up with such an opinion and rejects the judges of the criminal panel of the Supreme Court of Cassation, as well as judges of the courts of appeal in Bulgaria, rejecting acts of Borislav Sarafov, because they consider him illegitimate in office. A Supreme Court that does not recognize the Prosecutor General - this is an extremely serious problem for justice and a very serious crisis for the rule of law and we cannot help but react to this."
The Supreme Court is the body that can make the final decision, but in order for it to make this decision, someone must clearly and unambiguously put the topic before it, added Andrey Yankulov.