Върховен касационен съд на Република България (Supreme Court of Cassation of Bulgaria)
Galina Zaharova
President of the Supreme Court of Cassation
President since: 10 February 2022
Member of the Supreme Court since: 2013
Biography and career
Ms Galina Zaharova graduated in the Faculty of Law, Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski” in 1988 and has over 33 years of judicial experience.
For the period 1988-1989 she was a trainee judge in the Sofia City Court, and from 1989 to 1991 a junior judge at the same Court. From 1991 to 1992 she was a regional judge in the Fifth Regional Court and in 1992 Ms Zaharova became Vice-President of that Court.
She worked as a judge in the Sofia City Court from 1993 to 1998, and for the period 1998-1999 she was Vice-President of the Court. She was a judge at the Sofia Court of Appeal from 1999 to 2004 and its Vice-President from 2004 to 2007.
From 2007 to 2011 Ms Zaharova was a member of the Supreme Judicial Council. After that she continued to work as a judge at the Sofia Court of Appeal until 2013.
Ms Zaharova has been a member of the Supreme Court of Cassation since 2013, and President of the Second Criminal Division since 2017. On 13 November 2018, she was appointed by the Judicial Board of the Supreme Judicial Council as Vice-President of the Supreme Court of Cassation.
Ms Zaharova has a degree in EU Law from the European Centre for Judges and Lawyers at the European Institute of Public Administration in Luxembourg.
She is a member of the Program Council of the National Institute of Justice and has been a lecturer in a number of training courses organized by the Institute.
Judge Zaharova represents the Supreme Court of Cassation in the National Commission for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings at the Council of Ministers, the Central Commission for Combating Antisocial Behaviour of Minors at the Council of Ministers, the Council for Implementing the Updated Strategy for Judicial Reform and the National Council for Anti-Corruption Policies at the Council of Ministers.
She served on the Council of Europe's Expert Committee on Early Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency in Strasbourg. She was an expert in a regional project for Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro, as well as an expert for Bulgaria in European Commission studies on the institutional and legal framework of judicial cooperation in criminal matters in the European Union, the minimum penalties applicable in the Member States and penalties involving deprivation of rights in the Member States.