The Prosecutorial College of the Supreme Judicial Council elected Marian Marinov as Acting Director of the National Investigation Service (NIS), after Borislav Sarafov resigned from the post, BTA reports.
A week ago, the college decided to ask all investigators in the NIS whether they agreed to be Acting Director of the Investigation. Five of them agreed - former member of the Supreme Judicial Council, investigator Yasen Todorov, spokesperson of the National Investigation Service Marian Marinov, Krasimir Krastev, Vladimir Deshev and Lyubomir Georgiev.
Before the vote, the Prosecutorial College of the SJC decided to terminate the procedure for the election of the titular director of the National Investigation Service due to the lack of proposals received.
The election of the acting director of the NISS can be appealed within 14 days before the Supreme Administrative Court. Marian Marinov was elected according to the criterion of “senority“, which was used in the election of Vanya Stefanova as acting prosecutor general.
Some of the members of the college noted that the situation is unprecedented, without analogues and the SJC had to act after the acting director The Prosecutor General has not proposed a candidate and none of the current deputies in the National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria has agreed to take the vacant position.
During the debate, Yordan Stoev stated that he would support Yasen Todorov in the procedure, since he has the most administrative experience. Gergana Mutafova, for her part, indicated that she had inquired about all the candidates and had not found any public information about Marinov that would worry her. She also noted that the criterion of "seniority" should be followed and therefore she would support him. Kalin Chapkanova stated that she would also support Marinov. Seniority is the criterion that we have always followed, when there are no specific and clear rules according to which a given candidate should be selected, I think that administrative experience is a secondary criterion, she added. Evgeni Petrov and Stefan Petrov also agreed that the criterion of "seniority", proposed by Ognyan Damyanov, is the one that should be followed in this case.
In the subsequent vote for Yasen Todorov, two members of the college gave their support, and six voted against, while Marian Marinov received six votes "for" and two were against.