Bulgarian Roma Clan Chief Gets Public Reprimand for Obscene Behavior

Roma clan leader Kiril Rashkov, aka Tsar Kiro, will be publicly reprimanded for his obscene gesture and curses. Photo by dariknews.bg

The Asenovgrad Regional Court has sentenced Roma clan leader Kiril Rashkov, aka Tsar Kiro, to a year and two months of imprisonment and a public reprimand for cursing and flicking off a crowd on December 8, 2011.

The public reprimand will be read out loud by the Mayor of Katunitsa in front of local villagers.

Technically, 69-year-old Rashkov will not serve the prison term of a year and two months because the heavier sentence of three years and six months of imprisonment against him has entered into force.

Rashkov's penalty for hooliganism can be appealed before the Plovdiv District Court but his defender told journalists that they were not planning to raise objections.

During Thursday's court sitting, Rashkov pleaded guilty and the case was heard under the fast-track procedure.

Rashkov's lawyer, Daniel Angelov, insisted that Rashkov's behavior had been provoked by residents of Katunitsa, who had been shouting "murderer" as his client was leaving the building of the Regional Court in Asenovgrad.

The obscene gesture was witnessed by journalists and court guards and was caught on security cameras, which caused the prosecutor's office in Asenovgrad to initiate a self-referral.

Previously, the Asenovgrad Regional Court sentenced Rashkov to three and a half years of imprisonment for issuing a death threat against Veselin Hristov and Ivanka Petrova, residents of the southern Bulgarian village of Katunitsa.

On April 19, the Plovdiv District Court upheld the verdict of the court of first sentence.

The threats were made hours before 19-year-old Angel Petrov got ran over by a minivan driven by a man linked to the Roma clan leader.

The accident heightened ethnic tensions and triggered massive protests in Katunitsa and in a number of other big cities in the country.

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