2 minutes agoBulgaria: After mass protests, family violence protection law differs
Periskopi(3 years ago)
(3 years ago)Bulgaria's Parliament on 7 August approved changes to the Penal Code and the law on protection from domestic violence, following a shocking case of violence against an 18-year-old girl who sparked mass protests. MPs, gathered at an extraordinary session, approved the amendments by 144 votes for 58 cons. These [...]
MPs, gathered at an extraordinary session, approved the amendments by 144 votes for 58 cons.
These changes ensure the right to protection for people who have experienced violence in intimate relations, or for victims of violence who are neither married to their prospective abuser nor are in a bond of love.
Thousands of people protested in Sofia and other Bulgarian cities after a woman from downtown Stara Zagora was beaten and stabbed to death by her boyfriend.
This incident had become public on July 28th, only after the family expressed anger at the slow pace of the investigation.
The angry protesters called for amendments to the legislation and for improving safeguard clauses for women, carrying banners with the inscription: “No other woman more”.
The 26-year-old suspect, identified in the media as Georgi Georgiev, was arrested after the attack, but a court in Stara Zagora later released him after naming the girl's injuries as being “latte”.
He was again arrested on July 31st, following public outrage, and the prosecutor's office announced that it had accelerated the investigation.
Bulgarian police statistics show 18 women were killed in the first three months of this year by their suspected boyfriends. Women's rights activists say this number is much higher.
