Bulgarian Chief Prosecutor may be dismissed by end of month

Bulgarian Chief Prosecutor Ivan Geshev may be dismissed by the month’s end after six Prosecution College members of the Supreme Judicial Council demanded that he be fired on Friday after he interfered in an ongoing investigation.

He has been accused of interference in the investigation into an alleged explosion that targeted his armoured car on 1 May, although concerns have been raised that all is not what it seems with the ‘attack’.

There were no injuries in the incident, and the only witnesses were Geshev, his driver and bodyguards. He initially claimed his family were present at the time, which was later found untrue.

The latest slew of criticism comes as Geshev’s deputy, Borislav Sarafov, also the director of the National Investigation Service said an Israeli counterterrorism expert was illegally admitted to the explosion site on Geshev’s orders.

The six members who now want Geshev’s dismissal are from his hard-line lobby in the 25-member Supreme Judicial Council, responsible for electing him to his role despite public outcry and concern he was not fit for the job.

The GERB party of former Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and the Turkish minority party, DPS, who were among his staunchest supporters, have now turned against him.

At least 17 Council members would need to vote against him for him to be dismissed.

Meanwhile, prosecutors who had previously defended their boss have now begun to issue statements supporting his removal.

Geshev has not yet commented on the request for his dismissal.

The mandate of the Bulgarian Prosecutor General is seven years, and Geshev has been the head of the prosecutor’s office since the start of 2020.

Over the last three years, Bulgaria has been under pressure from the EU and the US to carry out a radical reform of the Bulgarian prosecutor’s office to remove the immunity of the chief prosecutor, against whom no independent investigation can be conducted.

(Krassen Nikolov | EURACTIV.bg)