site.btaGERB Alerts Prosecution Office about "Gross Violation" of Election Code by DOST Alliance MP Candidate

GERB Alerts Prosecution Office about "Gross Violation" of Election Code by DOST Alliance MP Candidate

Sofia, March 20 (BTA) - The Kurdjali, South Central Bulgaria, Chapter of the GERB Party has alerted the Kurdjali Regional Prosecution Office about what it calls "a gross violation" of the Election Code and the provision of Article 162 (1) of the Penal Code. The alert concerns Mihridjan Ismail Izet, an MP candidate on the list of the DOST Alliance, who published on her Facebook profile the representation of a foreign flag and the years 1341-2017, thereby indicating that a foreign State supports her coalition and drawing associations by illustrations with past periods of the history of the Bulgarian State related to an invasion of Bulgarian territory by foreign troops. "In our opinion, this propagates or incites to discrimination, violence and hatred on the basis of nationality and ethnic identity," GERB's complaint reads.

The year 1341 marks the beginning of a war which ultimately led to the Ottoman conquest of the Rhodopi Mountains, after the independent Bulgarian ruler of the area, Momchil, was defeated in the Battle of Peritheorion on July 7, 1345 by an allied Byzantine-Turkish force.

The cited Penal Code provision criminalizes the propagation or incitement to discrimination, violence or hatred on the basis of race, nationality or ethnic identity by speech, press or other mass communication media, through electronic information systems or in any other manner. On conviction, the offence carries one to four years' imprisonment, a fine ranging from 5,000 to 10,000 leva and public censure.