[REVISION HISTORY]

Bulgaria judicial council reforms and prosecutor selection

Updated 26 times since CLSTR started tracking revisions of this situation.

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2026-10-25 08:14 UTC → 2026-10-25 10:25 UTC · added ~~removed~~

In August 2026, the selection process for the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) intensified. For the prosecutor quota, candidates included Ivaylo Iliev, Siyka Mileva, and Marina Nenkova. For the judicial quota, Krasiemira Milachkova received support from various magistrates. By early September, twelve new nominations for the judges' quota were announced, including Mladen Dimitrov, Veselka Zlateva-Kozhuharova, Maria Terziyska, and Todor Todorov. The Association of Prosecutors in Bulgaria (APB) warned of alleged pressure, including threats of disciplinary action and media attacks, intended to influence the elections. Meanwhile, the political party ‘Yes, Bulgaria’ nominated Andrey Yankulov, Tanya Radulovska-Madamzhieva, and Emil Dechev. President Rumen Radev emphasized the election's criticality, noting that the selection of a Prosecutor General is anticipated in early 2027. Justice Minister Nikolay Naydenov faced allegations from former acting Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov regarding the “casting” of candidates, which Naydenov dismissed as a “compromising attack.” On October 2, the Legal Affairs Committee began verifying 20 candidates for 11 parliamentary quota positions. Following a request from the National Assembly’s Legal Affairs Committee to investigate professional integrity, a commission reported on October 13 that no judicial candidates from the parliamentary quota were subject to disciplinary proceedings regarding three high-profile cases: ‘Martin Bozhanov – The Notary’, ‘The Eight Dwarfs’, and ‘Krasimir Georgiev – Krasyo the Black’. On October 13, the Prosecutor's College of the SJC unanimously proposed Deputy Prosecutor General Magdalena Lazarova-Prodanova as the sole candidate for acting Prosecutor General. This proposal followed a request from Minister Naydenov for a competitive selection process with multiple candidates to restore public trust, though the College maintained its practice of proposing a single candidate based on seniority. On October 17, the first general assembly of prosecutors to elect new SJC members began in Sofia. On October 23, voting commenced for the four professional quota seats, with 1,567 eligible prosecutors casting paper ballots across 29 polling stations. Because no candidate secured the required absolute majority in the first round, a runoff is scheduled for October 25. The process includes real-time video surveillance and recording of ballot counting to ensure transparency.

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