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The original was posted on /r/twoxchromosomes by /u/SecretNeat6160 on 2023-08-02 23:47:16.

Hello, I am writing this post, because I am asking for help. I am from Bulgaria, a land notorious for its mistreatment of women, high rates of domestic abuse (20% allegedly, but seeking help here is so looked down onto or brushed off, that there’s definitely more) and really corrupt judiciary.

I want to bring to your attention a disgusting case that is happening here right now, where the criminal may be left with nothing more than a slap on his wrist. I will be asking of you to write a short email to demand justice for the traumatized victim, Debora, an eighteen year old girl, and more severe punishment for the perpetrator, Georgi Nikolaev from Stara Zagora. I am saying their names, because the case is so cruel it sounds fake. Unfortunately, it is not, but the criminal deserves to be associated with the consequences for the rest of his life. The end of the post will include contact information to authorities which I believe might make a change. I really hope that as we get more people involved (or just more coverage and pressure), the judges, who made the decision, the doctors, who claim it was a “minor” injury, will be suspended from their positions ( at least until the case is over ), since there’s obviously foul play. But most that Georgi receives the punishment he deserves.

About a month ago, Debora visits the hospital - she needs approximately 400 stitches on her face and body. Her head was shaved and her nose - broken.

It all started with a ring on the entryphone. At first, no one answered when she inquired who was there, but after initial hesitation, there was a response: “It’s me”, and she opened the door. She (18y) and Nikolaev (26y) had been together for four months. When he entered her place, he was wearing a mask and gloves and beat her without saying a word. First, he hit her head, breaking her nose. Then he made the 21 cuts with a paper knife. Lastly, he shaved her head, causing deep wounds in the process. (TW - details) The doctor who treated her says he’d never seen something like this in his life - Debora was constantly asking: “I am not going to die, right?”. Doctor Petrov describes the cut wounds as parallel, 2-2.5 cm in depth and 15 cm in length. The stitches took him 3 hours. Her parents claim that there were also wounds on her head, because of all the pressure he applied when shaving her.

Debora recognized him because of his smile (she claims he smiled while torturing her) and the clothes he was wearing. After the first hit, she could remember nothing. The court is not convinced whether she had a brain concussion and lost consciousness afterwards.

It is later revealed that, on the 24th and 25th of June, some time prior, he’d sent her life-threatening messages: I’ll be killing you" and on the 25th- “I will hang your head”. (Note, those include some Bulgarian slang that I don’t know how to fully convey).

The suspect, Georgi Nikolaev, was also on probation for beating up a man. Initially, the court let him go, because they believed that this was a minor bodily injury. The jury who made this decision was Tatyana Gyoneva. I will link a video with her below - it is in Bulgarian, but I will add subtitles when I have the time. In some timeframes, she chuckled while describing the girl’s injuries. Hopefully due to nervousness, because it is stressful to be interviewed about such a serious topic.

From the news I’ve been reading, it seems that a month later, the victim still refuses to speak about the case - understandably so. Her answers were only yes or no, but she had trouble communicating. She is in a state of shock and is working with psychologists to get her out of the nightmare.

This case lead to national protests in Bulgaria demanding a reform and more severe punishments.

Nikolaev worked as a bouncer in a club, but got fired as a result of this case. He is also divorced and has a 4 year-old daughter. He was let go initially, but because of the protests ( and his being on probation) he’s been arrested again. Nobody knows for how long. Many people turned to social media: a girl from Stara Zagora said on TikTok that this wasn’t a rare occurrence there - men shaving their girlfriends to shame them. Recently, Titi Papazov, allegedly famous, but disgusting guy, boasted about shaving his ex-girlfriend’s head to shame and punish her on a podcast. As he describes the act, the audience (and the host - Toto) laugh. People in social media also claim he also handcuffed her. Outrage in social media resulted in the Toto deleting the content, related to the case, instead of coming forward and apologising, but there are recordings in reddit. The host’s wife defended him.

The police and other institutions are convinved that the verdict will change as time goes, and the final say might result in major insuries.

Why the poor verdict?

On the one hand, Bulgaria is an Eastern-European country. Unfortunately, this means that we aren’t short of patriarchy and sexism - victims of domestic abuse are often left to fend for themselves. On the other hand, the laws are very poorly defined. I have translated and am retelling an excerpt from a news article, which describes some contributing factors to the initial verdict.

“There is a problem with mistreatment, resulting in serious mental or physical harm, that doesn’t lead to complications explicitly described in the codex as minor or moderate bodily injury. This means that any harm, outside of what’s described, is ruled out to be minor bodily injury. If you were continuously beaten up with a baton for example, which would result in trauma, both physical and mental, but not breaking anything or causing loss of consciousness, this remains a long and painful torture disguising as a minor injury according to court.

Secondly, the Supreme Court from 1979 defines disfigurement as resulting in not only a significant change in the face and body, but also something that lasts. “Short-term” effects, despite leading to significant disfigurement, don’t make up a moderate bodily injury. Consequently, bruising, swelling, cuts that won’t leave scars, are also considered minor.

Furthermore, the one who determines the significance of the injury must be an expert practitioner (forensic pathologist) in the field, able to determine if something is going to have a long term impact.”

As previously mentioned, Bulgaria is notorious with corruption, so if you pull a few strings here and there, it should go on without saying that you can get someone to lie for you.

In order to be considered moderate bodily injury, the conditions should’ve been life-threatening - so her life should be endangered and she should be potentially dead for there to be any action?

The doctor, who ruled the bodily injuries to be minor, has been temporarily suspended (until the case is over). There have been protests all over the country as the case caused rightfully so, public outrage.

Your part: Please write an email where you express your opinions/feelings/outrage about this case to the following emails:

1 - [legal@government.bg](mailto:legal@government.bg) ; 2 - [ombudsman@starazagora.bg](mailto:ombudsman@starazagora.bg) ; 3 - [priemna@justice.government.bg](mailto:priemna@justice.government.bg) ; 4 - [priemna@president.bg](mailto:priemna@president.bg) . You could write it in English - I believe that’s alright, it is still an act of rebellion to the system. You could use google translate and translate your text in Bulgarian - that would be great as well. Any help is immensely appreciated. We need to use our voice to support each other and protect victims, who are so traumatized that they can’t speak for themselves. If you have any questions about the case, I would do my best to answer - news articles are appearing all the time, so I will do my best to include edits in this post with updates on the current situation. If there are any links/videos/news or anything you would like me to translate so you get a better understanding of what’s going on, please share them and I will try to keep things up to date.

Sources ( In Bulgarian - use google translate if just glancing through, if interested in something specific - please point it out, I am willing to translate and post it here )

Video of the jury -