The Council of Ministers adopted a decision to pay a total of €23,000 in compensation in compliance with a judgment of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) against Bulgaria, issued on February 17, 2026. The case concerns Leon Francois d'Assis Coffey, a black British citizen.
On September 29, 2018, in Sofia, he became the victim of a beating inflicted on him by a group of football fans of "Levski" after a match against "CSKA-Sofia". As a result of the fight, Kofi suffered serious injuries - a broken jaw, knocked out teeth and other head injuries. The attack on him was carried out literally in front of the main entrance to the Ministry of Interior - on the corner of the capital's streets "6-i septembri" and "Gen. Parensov".
Before the ECHR, the British man living and working in Sofia raises two complaints under Art. 3 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (prohibition of inhuman treatment). The first complaint is that the authorities have not created an adequate regulatory framework to prevent the attack and have not effectively implemented it in practice (in violation of the substantive aspect of Art. 3 of the Convention). The second is that the authorities failed to effectively investigate the beating, which caused serious suffering to the victim and was motivated by racist motives (violation of the procedural aspect of Article 3 of the Convention).
Leon Coffey also alleged a violation of Article 14 in conjunction with Article 3 of the Convention for discriminatory treatment in the investigation of the incident. The ECtHR found that the Bulgarian legal framework sufficiently regulated the acts from which Leon Coffey suffered and that there was no violation of Article 3 of the Convention in its substantive aspect.
However, the Court concluded that the investigation of the incident was not effective and capable of leading to the establishment of the facts and the detection of the perpetrators and found a violation of Article 3 of the Convention in its procedural aspect. The ECtHR also found that the authorities failed to investigate the possible racist motives at all. Based on its conclusions under Art. 3 of the Convention, the ECtHR concluded that the State had also violated Article 14 in conjunction with Article 3.
The award was EUR 18,500 for non-pecuniary damage and EUR 4,500 for costs and expenses.