Bulgaria's Supreme Judicial Council (VSS) is to elect Thursday a new Sofia City Prosecutor.

The procedure for electing a new Sofia City Prosecutor will end with the hearings of the three candidates – Vanya Ilieva and Boyko Atanassov from the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office and Rusi Alexiev from the Sofia Regional Prosecutor's Office, according to reports of the Bulgarian National Television (BNT).

The vacancy opened after the disciplinary dismissal of Nikolay Kokinov by the Supreme Judicial Council (VSS) due to a scandalous wiretap leak.

On July 11, VSS dismissed Kokinov from the judicial system over leaked recordings of a wiretapped scandalous conversation between him, former Agriculture Minister Miroslav Naydenov, and former Prime Minister Boyko Borisov.

The conversation was recorded in mid-April in Borisov's home in Bankya.

During the meeting, Borisov is informed by Kokinov about the results of probes by the prosecuting authority before they have been officially announced.

Borisov, Naydenov and Kokinov are also heard discussing options for obstructing court proceedings against Naydenov who faces charges of corruption and malfeasance in office.

Experts said that the talks contained evidence of at least 5 crimes, including obstruction of criminal proceedings, trading in influence, disclosure of classified information, EU funds fraud, and illegal wiretapping.

However, the prosecuting authority only found evidence of one – illegal wiretapping.

After the leaked transcripts of the wiretaps reached the media, Kokinov resigned from the post of Sofia City Prosecutor.