A prosecutor from the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office died on Friday, 23 October, a day before prosecutors voted for their quota on the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC). Unofficial reports say it was a suicide.
Neither the prosecutor's identity nor the cause of death has been officially confirmed. The prosecutor's office has not said who died or what happened. Unofficial reports name prosecutor Georgi Gerasimov, but the authorities have not confirmed this.
Colleagues quoted by a print newspaper say he had recently been under heavy psychological pressure. There is no official information about such pressure, and no link between it and the death has been established.
There are no reports that the prosecutor was involved in any dispute over the SJC election. No link between the death and the vote has been established either. The authorities must establish the circumstances, and no results of any check or investigation have been announced.
The vote took place on Saturday, 24 October. In all, 1,567 prosecutors could vote, and they chose four SJC members from 25 candidates.
In the first round, no candidate won more than half of the valid votes, so prosecutors voted again on Sunday, 25 October. In this second vote, the candidates with the most votes won.