A Roma woman gunned-down and disabled outside her house by Bulgarian youths has been awarded more than €15,000 by human rights judges.
The European Court of Human Rights delivered its judgement today.
The applicant in the case, Yolanda Kirilova Yotova (Yotova v. Bulgaria no. 43606/04) is a Bulgarian national who was born in 1972 and lives in a village called Aglen, in the municipality of Lukovit.
She is of Roma origin. Yotova was giving a party at her house in Aglen on the evening of 13 July 1999, two days after serious altercations had occurred between some youths of Roma origin from Aglen and some youths of Bulgarian origin from a nearby village.
At about midnight some shots were fired from a car towards the front gate of her house and the applicant was hit in the chest, shoulder and arm. Following the attack she was declared over 75% disabled.
Relying in particular on Articles 2 (right to life) and 14 (prohibition of discrimination), Yotova alleged that the state authorities had failed to comply with their obligation to conduct an effective investigation into her attempted murder. She also complained that the authorities had not attempted to establish whether or not it had been a racially and ethnically motivated crime.
Violation of Article 2 (investigation)
Violation of Article 14 combined with Article 2
Just satisfaction: EUR 12,000 (non-pecuniary damage) and EUR 3,770 (costs and expenses)
