The Plenum of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) Thursday voted 17-2 to elect Magdalena Lazarova-Prodanova as acting Prosecutor General. The decision may be appealed within 14 days. Under the Judiciary System Act, one person may serve as acting President of the Supreme Administrative Court, acting President of the Supreme Court of Cassation, or acting Prosecutor General for a term of up to six months.
Lazarova currently serves as Deputy Prosecutor General. She was nominated for the post because she is next in seniority after Vanya Stefanova, who currently serves as acting Prosecutor General. Stefanova’s term expires on October 22.
According to Atanaska Disheva, a member of the SJC Plenum, this item should not have been considered on Thursday because the relevant materials were provided to Plenum members only Wednesday afternoon, meaning the required three-day notice period had not been met. She said an extraordinary Plenum meeting could be convened to comply with the deadline and take place before October 22. Her proposal was rejected, with 15 votes against and three in favour.
Ognyan Damyanov, a member of the Plenum, noted that a few weeks ago the acting President of the Supreme Administrative Court had been re-elected in the same way, but no one had objected at the time. During the substantive debate, Damyanov said he had not heard anything negative about Lazarova.
The election of an acting Prosecutor General should not take place in breach of procedural rules, and there should be no rush, Disheva added. She said the principle of seniority was not mandatory, although it had been followed in practice so far. When Borislav Sarafov was appointed acting Prosecutor General, even this principle had not been observed.
She added that she had found information indicating that Lazarova had sat on the judicial panel that considered the measure of restraint imposed on Yavor Zlatanov, who was involved in the Eight Dwarfs affair, a case involving allegations of influence peddling and the unlawful takeover of companies with the help of people in the judiciary. However, because the three-day notice period had not been observed, Disheva had been unable to obtain the hearing record. She said that, given that the case was one of the landmark cases in Bulgaria’s justice system, Lazarova’s decisions in it could reveal a great deal about her professional qualities.
Disheva also called for Lazarova to be heard before her candidacy for acting Prosecutor General was put to a vote. The proposal was rejected, with one vote in favour and 18 against.
Galina Zaharova, President of the Supreme Court of Cassation, noted that the positions of acting Prosecutor General and acting head of a court’s administration were not new posts, and that there was no requirement for the procedure for appointing people to these positions to be the same as the procedure for appointing permanent officeholders.
“If the range of criteria were broadened, we could be accused of a certain lack of impartiality or of favouring a particular candidate,” Kalina Chapkanova, a member of the SJC Prosecutors Chamber, said at its latest meeting. “If we follow a single criterion for appointing an acting officeholder and do not depart from it, as has been the SJC’s practice to date, we could ensure the impartiality of the procedure,” she said.
Her comments came in response to a letter sent Wednesday by Justice Minister Nikolay Naydenov, in which he urged the Prosecutors Chamber to propose that the Plenum allow a genuine choice between candidates for acting Prosecutor General, who would clearly state their positions and vision for the prosecution service over the following six-month period.
Magdalena Lazarova-Prodanova Elected Acting Prosecutor General 2026 THE NEWS FROM BULGARIA – NEWS AGENCY 2009-2025 2026-10-15 09:52:56
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