site.btaBar Associations Call for Termination of Procedure for Electing Prosecutor General, SAC President

Lawyers from all over Bulgaria have called for the termination of the procedure for the election of Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) President and Prosecutor General. In a position received by BTA, 25 bar associations express disagreement with the election of the heads of institutions crucial for the judiciary by "an illegitimate body, as well as with the ongoing constitutional, political and institutional crisis destroying the foundations of the rule of law".

The position has so far been endorsed by bar councils and the presidents of 25 bar associations.

The lawyers call on the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) to suspend the open procedure for the election of both the Prosecutor General and the SAC President until a new Supreme Judicial Council is formed, in order to ensure that the newly elected SJC, within its mandate, can start a new procedure and make a legitimate choice of the most important bodies in the judiciary, allowing nominations of candidates from all bodies with the authority to do so.

The 25 bar associations also call on the candidate for prosecutor general - acting Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov, to withdraw his nomination and his participation in a procedure which, according to the position, is "predetermined, lacking legitimacy and is about to finally destroy the institutional authority of the prosecution service of the Republic of Bulgaria, of the judiciary, and of the statehood as a whole".

All lawyers and citizens are invited to a peaceful protest at noon on October 25 in front of the building of Sofia's Palace of Justice or in their city to express "the disagreement of the bar, the legal community and the society with the election of the heads of key institutions of the judiciary by an illegitimate body, as well as with the ongoing constitutional, political and institutional crisis, destroying the foundations of democracy and the rule of law."

October 25 is European Lawyers Day. This year the theme is the independence and self-governance of the Bar and its contribution to stronger democracies, the authors of the position recall.