A realistic deadline within which the Prosecutorial College of the Supreme Judicial Council can consider the request to replace the acting Prosecutor General is March 11. This was stated by Ognyan Damyanov, a member of the Prosecutorial College of the Supreme Judicial Council, in the program "This Morning" on bTV.
The proposals of the acting Minister of Justice contain several groups of arguments, he explained. "The first is for this six-month period during which the acting Prosecutor General can exercise his powers, whether it applies to Mr. Sarafov. The second group of arguments - we should assess whether it is appropriate, in view of the long period of time in which Mr. Sarafov has performed these functions, that he should not be replaced with another acting one. The third group of arguments is that he has not fulfilled the promises he made when he took office," Damyanov explained.
The first question that was raised was also debated yesterday. In legal doctrine and practice, there is a different interpretation of this norm. Different decisions of court panels were cited in one sense and another. Therefore, the Chairman of the Supreme Court of Cassation explained that an interpretative decision is about to be initiated, but it will be initiated when the Constitutional Court rules on whether this norm complies with the Constitution, he also pointed out.
In his words, Sarafov is quite a bit better in comparison, compared to his predecessor Ivan Geshev. "Mr. Sarafov did what was possible. He initiated a number of disciplinary proceedings against persons for whom evidence was collected that there were violations or that they had violated the Code of Ethics. Disciplinary proceedings were conducted and now there are pending cases," said Ognyan Damyanov.
According to Damyanov, other candidates for acting prosecutor general could be discussed. "Mr. Sarafov has two deputies and they could act as acting prosecutor general. These are two ladies who can perform the functions", he explained.
And he added that the new acting prosecutor general could be elected by a new Supreme Judicial Council. Ognyan Damyanov was categorical that he has no intention of being acting prosecutor general.