First conviction for a call to violence and hate in "Facebook"

Policy Response DateOctober 13, 2011 Country: Bulgaria Address: Varna, Bulgaria General Type: Racist violence, Racist discourse Racism and discrimination phenomena: Extremism - organised Racist Violence
Groups affected / Interested in: Roma & Travelers Key socio-economic/institutional areas: Internet Hate speech/Racist Discourse Medium: Internet

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The Bulgarian Regional Court Varna imposed a 10 months conditional imprisonment and a public reprimand to the 23-year-old Slav Zhechev for an offense against the equality of citizens. He created a Facebook event named "Slaughter of Gypsies”.
This is the second conviction under Art. 162, para. 1 of the Criminal Code of preaching and incitement to discrimination, violence or hatred based on race or ethnicity, the first one being of the Bulgarian nationalists’ party "Ataka" leader Volen Siderov.
The invitation to "slaughter" of Slav Zhechev was illustrated with pictures which, according to the court decision are inciting violence and hatred based on ethnicity. From his personal computer Zhechev sent to his friends on Facebook an invitation to the event.
After the events in Katunitsa of 25 September, 2011, and the subsequent protests, a record number of investigations for preaching incitement of ethnic hatred were initiated, most of them in the city of Varna.

Source: Dnevnik Online, http://www.dnevnik.bg/bulgaria/2011/10/13/1176394_purva_prisuda_za_priziv_kum_nasilie_i_nasajdane_na/

Date of accession: 21.10.2011