"The anger and pain of the people who protested in front of the Courthouse yesterday are completely understandable. But besides anger, there is also shame, because all of us as a society are responsible, especially because we allowed the institutions we created to sleep through everything that is happening before our eyes, in order to lead to this murder". This was stated in an interview with Radio Plovdiv by lawyer Mihail Ekimdzhiev, chairman of the Association for European Integration and Human Rights, regarding requests to increase sentences for minors after the death of Georgi Kuzev.
The young man was severely beaten on the Youth Hill in Plovdiv by young men, five of whom were accused of his murder and are in custody.
The situation is escalating with each passing day, and yesterday in front of the Courthouse in Plovdiv, where the measures for the detention of two of the girls were being considered, there was a protest during which a petition was launched demanding changes in the legislation and stricter sentences for serious crimes.
According to lawyer Ekimdzhiev, increasing sentences will not solve serious problems and will not lead to any serious effect.
"Hundreds of criminological studies have been conducted for centuries, which categorically establish that the cruelty of sentences has absolutely no role in reducing of crime. The state cannot reduce crime through fear, through repression. For one simple reason, which has again been established by sociologists and psychologists, namely - when a criminal decides something, he does not think about how many years he will spend in prison. He believes that he will get away with it. And this is the main reason for prevention", said the lawyer.
According to him, people's anger should be directed in another direction, namely - to make an attempt to get the institutions, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Prosecutor's Office, to work, to reveal, to implement prevention.
"For five years, some self-proclaimed influencer has been showing everyone how he hunts pedophiles. In some cases, he beats them up in public. There is no reaction from the police, no reaction from the Prosecutor's Office. Your fellow journalists praise him and invite him to the studios, where they present him as a hero. Why then should these immature girls and boys not imitate this hero, presented by the media and tolerated by the institutions? Why shouldn't they do "good" deeds like him?," he added.
"We must demand that the prosecutor's office and the police take action, because in this case, categorical data has emerged that these children are members of neo-fascist organizations. There are specific names of the leaders of these organizations. There are addresses where their gatherings are held, there is data about their hierarchy. But I am willing to bet that the prosecutor's office and the police will not touch there, they will not investigate, because they do not feel like working. They are only dealing with the tip of the iceberg," Mihail Ekimdzhiev also pointed out to the Bulgarian National Radio.
He stated that change cannot come only with protests after a serious case, but is possible after permanent civil pressure on the institutions.