site.btaParliamentary Committee Approves Harsher Penalties for Trivial, Medium Bodily Injury

The Bulgarian National Assembly Legal Affairs Committee on Thursday approved on first reading amendments to the Penal Code providing for severer penal sanctions for medium and trivial bodily injury. All 19 Committee members present voted in favour, with no votes against and abstentions.

According to a joint bill presented by GERB-UDF, Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), "any person, who inflicts medium bodily injury on another, shall be punished by deprivation of liberty for a maximum term of eight years," increasing the present six-year upper limit of the custodial sentence.

Trivial bodily injury will no longer be punishable by probation as an alternative to imprisonment.

The fine provided as an alternative to imprisonment for trivial bodily injury that inflicted pain or suffering without causing a health disorder will be increased to BGN 500 - BGN 1,000 from BGN 100 - BGN 300 now.

The Committee also voted, 16-3, to adopt another motion for an amendment to the Penal Code entered by Vazrazhdane. According to that provision, the minimum penalty for trivial bodily injury will be three months' imprisonment.

The MPs interrupted their summer recess for this urgent business after a case of heinous brutality against a young woman in Stara Zagora (Southeastern Bulgaria), classified as trivial bodily injury, caused a nationwide outcry.

The Debate

Nadezhda Yordanova MP of CC-DB: No legislative measure would suffice by itself to halt violence. A complex of measures is needed.  
 
National Ombudsman Diana Kovatcheva: Torture and inhuman treatment should be criminalized. These offences crush human dignity, and Bulgaria has incurred criticism on this account on numerous occasions. Torture degrades human dignity more brutally than insult and defamation which constitute criminal offences.

Justice Minister Atanas Slavov: Institutions' reaction is to a certain extent overdue, and the public response raises hopes. In cases when problems related to domestic violence are raised, the National Assembly has been used to whip up passions. The Justice Ministry attaches importance to calibrating penalties for bodily injuries and aggravating constituent elements. Provisions on torture should be considered.

Hamid Hamid MP of MRF: The court should impose adequate penalties. As long as it fails to do so, we will be inceasing the penalties.

Raya Nazaryan MP of GERB-UDF: The court misclassifies these acts as trivial rather than medium bodily injury. The Criminal Justice Board of the Supreme Court of Cassation should render an interpretative judgment on this issue.

Miroslav Ivanov MP of CC-DB: Providing for harsher penalties will not impose a different pattern of conduct on judges. The idea is to deter such acts. The judicial system should self-regulate and live up to public expectations. 

Justice Minister Slavov: The opinions expressed during the debate should not be perceived as pressure on the court. Judges should not be mentioned by name during today's discussion. The work done by the investigating and prosecuting authorities is what matters.

MP Hamid: Prosecutors should not assume that this situation does not concern them. If certain people have done their job, we wouldn't be here today.

Grozdan Karadjov MP of There Is Such a People (TISP): There is no way to make any kind of intimacy involving violence criminally liable. If probation is scrapped, fines may be imposed instead of severer penalties. TISP move that two or more intentional physical damages to the body that require medical intervention to be addressed should be classified as medium bodily injury. 

Desislava Atanasova MP of GERB-UDF: Political confrontation is pointless in this life situation. GERB will second Vazrazhdane's motion.

Deputy Justice Minister Emil Dechev: Increasing the penalty is not always sufficiently effective. Even in its present form, the Penal Code offers enough options to bring charges of a more serious offence and, on this basis, to seek continued custody for the person accused in the Stara Zagora. If there is conflicting case law, the Supreme Court could be approached for an interpretative judgment. 

Independent MP Radostin Vasilev: An attempt is being made to politicize the brutal violence against a woman. There is no way to prove an intimate relationship.

Radomir Cholakov MP of GERB-UDF: Turning the National Assembly as the culprit for everything is a dangerous tendency. This is a hybrid war against parliamentarism.

Lawyer Aneli Chobanova: This is a systematic problem which requires a holistic solution. People do not trust police and the judicial system because they do not find there the protection they need.

Stoio Tetevenski of LevFem Organizaton: The cause of this type of violence is hate for women. This is gender-based violence.
 
Radoslav Stoyanov of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee: We see perpetrators of violence who treat women as subhuman beings. We bring up young people who objectify women.

Prosecutor Penka Bogdanova: Magistrates need to be more sensitive when they have to seek indications of aggression and domestic violence.