site.btaPlovdiv District Court Releases Two Youths Charged with Assaulting Nepalese Nationals

The Plovdiv District Court has released the two young men, aged 17 and 18, who were charged with causing bodily harm to two Nepalese nationals on the night of July 24 to 25 in the city. The 17-year-old was placed under the supervision of a police counselling centre inspector as a precautionary measure, while the 18-year-old was released on a bail of EUR 700. The hearing was held behind closed doors because one of the defendants is a minor. The investigation into the recent murder of 37-year-old Georgi Kuzev in Plovdiv established a connection between the two youths and the group of teenagers, who severely beat Kuzev up and filmed the entire assault. The assault on the Nepalese nationals was also captured on video.

In its reasoning, the Court said there was a limited and minimally substantiated suspicion that the youths had committed the offense, but found no risk that they would abscond or commit another crime. Judge Vasil Tasev noted that, according to the forensic medical examination, the victims had sustained minor bodily injuries, consisting of pain and suffering, without any resulting impairment of their health.

The charges concern minor bodily harm committed jointly and motivated by hooliganism. Prosecutor Miroslav Alendarov, who is supervising the case, corrected information given by his colleagues at a news briefing earlier in the day, stating that the minor had been present at Kuzev’s murder.

Both youths have completed the 11th grade and have no previous criminal records, but investigators have established that they are prone to unprovoked aggression. In addition to hooligan motives, investigators are also examining whether the attack may have been xenophobically motivated, given operational leads indicating that the youths may be members of skinhead organizations and other groups that incite hatred against people of different races and ethnic backgrounds, Prosecutor Alendarov said.

The two Nepalese nationals have been living in Bulgaria for about six months and work at a printing house in a village near Plovdiv.

The mother of the minor, Gergana Papazova, spoke to the media and said that her son had been a member of a skinhead gang for slightly more than a year. Regarding the assault on the Nepalese nationals, she said her son had told her that they had seen drug users vomiting and behaving aggressively inside a shop. As for the Youth Hill case, he told his mother that he had tried to stop the beating but had been unable to do so. Papazova said she had repeatedly called the emergency number 112 and alerted municipal security officials and local police about groups of minors gathering in several public places, where they were consuming alcohol and drugs. She claimed that authorities had not responded adequately to her alerts, including her requests to investigate which shops were selling alcohol to minors. "I tried everything, including getting help from psychologists, but this gang is stronger than I am," the mother said.