site.btaBulgaria to Pay EUR 10,000-Plus in Compensations in Two Strasbourg Court Cases

Bulgaria's Council of Ministers has approved the payment of EUR 5,000 and EUR 5,200 in compensation in two cases brought before the European Court of Human Rights, the Government Information Service said on Wednesday.

Gender Discrimination

In the first case, the applicant, having turned 16, joined the local men's Under-18 football team because there was no women's Under-18 team either in her native town or anywhere else in the country at that time. She underwent a medical examination and was certified as fit to be a competitor. As the applicant made progress, in 2017 her coaches approached the local chapter of the Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) in Veliko Tarnovo (North Central Bulgaria) to put her on record as a competitor in the men's Under-18 team. The BFU rejected the request on the grounds that she was a woman. When she complained of discrimination, the national authorities did not consider whether the refusal to put her on record in a men's team while a women's team was allegedly non-existent amounted to unequal treatment compared to a man in a similar situation (discrimination on the grounds of sex) within the meaning of Article 14 in conjunction with Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights.

Having regard to the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights (cases Pla and Puncernau v. Andorra, no. 69498/01, Judgment of 13 July 2004, § 59 and Budinova and Chaprazov v. Bulgaria, no. 12567/13, Judgment of 16 February 2021, §§ 92-94), in which Andorra and Bulgaria, respectively, were found to have violated Article 14 in conjunction Article 8 of the Convention, the Bulgarian Government submitted a unilateral declaration and invited the Court to strike the application out of its list of cases, in accordance with Article 37 of the Convention.

Violation of Presumption of Innocence

In 2019 the applicant was arrested for a bribe he allegedly asked for in his capacity as borough mayor in Plovdiv. The application contained complaints regarding statements by the prosecution service at an ensuring news conference and the content of a ruling by which the national court ordered the applicant detained in custody. At this point in time, the criminal case against the applicant is pending before the Plovdiv District Court acting as a court of first instance.

Having regard to the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights (Case of Banevi v. Bulgaria, no. 25658/19, Judgement of 12 October 2021), in which Bulgaria was found to have violated Article 6 § 2 and Article 13 of the Convention, the Bulgarian Government submitted a unilateral declaration and invited the Court to strike the application out of its list of cases, in accordance with Article 37 of the Convention.