Sarafov requested disciplinary dismissal for Pleven District Prosecutor

I.F. Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov has submitted a proposal to the Prosecutorial Board of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) to institute disciplinary proceedings for the imposition of disciplinary punishment « dismissal from office as an administrative head of the District Prosecutor of the District Prosecutor’s Office – Pleven, Vladimir Nikolov reported. Nikolov is the chairman of the Board of Directors of the Association of Prosecutors in Bulgaria, and in 2023 he was awarded by the Union of Lawyers in Bulgaria for professional achievements.

Sarafov’s proposal was prepared on the basis of a report from a planned thematic revision of the work under the organization, management and control of the activity of the Pleven District Prosecutor’s Office, in the period July 1, 2023 to December 31, 2024, carried out by prosecutors from the Inspectorate Department at the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office.

The proposal for the initiation of disciplinary proceedings is in connection with the disciplinary violations under Art. 307, para 3, item 4 of the Judiciary Act (JSA) and admitted in the period from July 1, 2023 to December 31, 2024, disciplinary violations under Article 307, paragraph 5, item 1 of the JSA.

The audit found that Vladimir Nikolov, in a row of his orders, systematically violated the principle of random selection in the distribution of files and pre -trial proceedings in the prosecutor’s office he was led, and in 40 cases did not comply with the acts in force in the prosecutor’s office related to the regulated in Art. 9, para. 1 of the JSA principle of random selection. Compliance with this principle is a key moment to guarantee the impartiality of magistrates, establishing the principle of the rule of law and counteracting corruption in view of the prevention of the distribution of specific cases of a pre -known magistrate, the prosecutor’s office said.

In the course of the thematic audit, another 67 files were established, distributed by Vladimir Nikolov as his administrative head of OP-Pleven in the hypothesis of a certain choice. Most of them, it is not clear on what principle a file is distributed precisely to the team member specified in the protocol for a certain election, the prosecutor’s office said.

Each of the files listed found improperly the hypothesis of a particular choice, and they should have been allocated to the principle of random selection.

The thematic revision against Vladimir Nikolov also established that, as an administrative head of the Pleven District Prosecutor’s Office, he also committed another violation of the Judiciary Act. Did not exercise the compliance with the legislator for compliance with the measures for the measures for procedural coercion under the Code of Criminal Procedure (PPC) and as a result a violation was committed with respect to the accused persons in six pre-trial proceedings.

In some cases, the investigation period has been repeatedly extended by both its deputies, and different defects have been established in the decrees for extending the deadline – on the grounds of Art. An expired measure is confirmed, and in some cases, without indicating its type; There is no pronouncement in clarification in the request of the supervising prosecutor that such a measure has been taken.

In view of the findings of the inspection of the Inspectorate Department, containing 17 pages, Sarafov proposes to the SJC Prosecutorial College to initiate disciplinary proceedings for the imposition of disciplinary punishment of Vladimir Nikolov under the Judiciary Act because of the district priorities, as well as for failure to comply with his official duties.

This is another proposal of Sarafov to the SJC Prosecutor’s College in the past two years against administrative heads of the prosecutor’s office, as the Inspectorate Department continues to carry out inspections in accordance with the approved plan for regular inspections of the work of the individual prosecutor’s offices in the country, the prosecutor’s office said.