The Bulgarian Helsinki Committee (BHC) is representing the Roma boy from the village Ovchepoltsi, Bulgaria.

Seventeen-year-old Mitko Yonkov was beaten for saying that he and the attacker, 24-year-old Angel Kaleev, who is not Roma, are equal. Kaleev filmed the beating on his own camera and later uploaded it on Facebook.

The video was seen and shared by hundreds of thousands of people and launched the international campaign #НиеСмеРавни (#RomaAreEqual) in social media.

The Bulgarian Helsinki Committee is representing Mitko Yonkov in the criminal proceedings initiated by the authorities for this hate crime.

Racist motive

On Tuesday, April 19, the Pazardzhik District Prosecutor’s Office announced that Kaleev was charged with mild bodily injury inflicted to Yonkov out of "hooligan" and "xenophobic" motives – a crime under Article 131 (1.12) of the Bulgarian criminal code.

The BHC has already objected to the prosecutor’s legal characterization of the crime. First of all, as far as the text of Article 131 (1.12) is concerned, and the therein envisioned xenophobic motives, it must be said that Roma people are not foreigners and Mitko Yonkov is a Bulgarian citizen. Given that, the motivation of the perpetrator was not xenophobic. It was clearly racist.

The victim is of Roma descent and was attacked because of this. Secondly, the act of the perpetrator does not amount only to mild bodily injury. It qualifies also under Article 162 (2) of the criminal code, which envisions protection against encroachments on the equality of citizens and covers psychological violence based on race and ethnicity.

Mitko Yonkov was subjected to such violence: while hitting and kicking him in the head and abdomen, the perpetrator subjected him to harassment by racist and other insults, threats and degrading remarks and acts.

The humiliation was aggravated by the fact that the video was made public. It is clear that the aim of the perpetrator was to crush any belief of the victim that the two of them can be equal.

'Kicked a little bit'

It is not only the inadequate legal characterization of the acts of the perpetrator that marked the start of the criminal proceedings, but also the racism expressed by the forensic medical expert appointed in the case.

He told the BHC’s representative who was accompanying the victim that "Mango [a derogative slang for Roma people in the Bulgarian language] is all right. Mango is fine. He was kicked a little bit." This racist, stigmatizing language suggests that the expert is biased, which discredits his evaluations of evidence. The BHC has already requested his withdrawal from the case.

The BHC reminds the state that it is obliged to undertake an adequate and effective investigation of every case of hate crime. Failure to do so amounts to a violation of the European Convention of Human Rights. The BHC will represent the victim on all levels – national and supranational.