Borislav Sarafov has resigned as Director of the National Investigation Service
Borislav Sarafov has resigned as Director of the National Investigation Service. His resignation is expected to be added as an extraordinary item to the agenda of the Prosecutorial Chamber of the Supreme Judicial Council, which is holding its regular meeting on Wednesday.
On 22 April, Sarafov also resigned as Acting Prosecutor General, after having performed the role for nearly a year beyond the statutory time limit. A few days ago, Justice Minister Nikolay Naydenov called on him to step down from the National Investigation Service as well and leave the judiciary.
In a statement to the media quoted by the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA), Sarafov said that he had requested to be released from his position ahead of schedule and reinstated as a rank-and-file investigator.
“I am returning to the work where my professional path as a Bulgarian magistrate began, with respect for the profession and with the conviction that a person is most useful where they can work calmly and where their experience and efforts can have real meaning,” Sarafov said in his statement to the media.
Since 2020, when the Anti-Corruption Fund (ACF) published its “Eight Dwarfs” investigation, numerous testimonies and pieces of evidence have emerged publicly regarding close ties between Borislav Sarafov — then Deputy Prosecutor General and Director of the National Investigation Service — and Petyo Petrov, known as “Evroto,” the leader of a network of informal influence within Bulgaria’s judicial system.
For example, one of the main witnesses in “Eight Dwarfs,” Iliya Zlatanov, has claimed that Borislav Sarafov and Petyo Petrov – Evroto had close relations and that he had seen Sarafov waiting to meet Petrov at the “Eight Dwarfs” restaurant on more than one occasion.
Iliya Zlatanov’s claims are also supported by photographs received by email and published by ACF in 2023, showing Petyo Petrov and Borislav Sarafov engaged in a friendly conversation outside the “Eight Dwarfs” restaurant.
The information contained in Zlatanov’s allegations and the photographs is also corroborated by the testimony of a protected witness, questioned on 31 May 2023, according to whom Borislav Sarafov and other senior magistrates frequently visited Petyo Petrov – Evroto at the “Eight Dwarfs” restaurant. Her testimony is part of an investigation opened by the Sofia District Prosecutor’s Office on 29 May 2023, one day after ACF published the photographs of Petrov and Sarafov outside the restaurant.
In December 2024, it emerged that the then special ad hoc prosecutor Daniela Taleva, who had the authority to investigate the Prosecutor General and his deputies, had terminated the inquiries into Sarafov after finding no evidence implicating him in a criminal offence.
A few days ago, the Prosecutorial Chamber of the Supreme Judicial Council refused to open disciplinary proceedings against Borislav Sarafov, citing the expiry of the limitation period for some of the alleged violations and finding the proposal unsubstantiated in its remaining parts.
Justice Minister Nikolay Naydenov has appealed the Prosecutorial Chamber’s refusal before the Supreme Administrative Court.