Contributed by: Genoveva Tisheva and BGRF, Bulgaria National VAW Monitor

During the last week of 20 June, several media outlets addressed the issue of trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

According to News.dir.bg (20 June 2007), the folk-singer Kondiu Savov was convicted for the second time by the Sliven regional court for trafficking and inducement to prostitution. He received ten months of imprisonment and a fine of 800 leva (about 400 EURO.) Currently, Kondiu is serving another three-year sentence in the Burgas prison for similar crimes. The new punishment is concurrent with the previous one and will not be added to it. This type of crime is becoming an epidemic among well known popular singers who obviously abuse their popularity.

In the meantime, News.dir.bg (22 June 2007) reports that “[t]he Greeks wait in line for sex in Sandanski.”  It discloses that girls make about 500 leva (250 EURO.) A good part of the tourists in Sandanski enter the country just for sex. The girls working in the sex market in Sandanski are said to charge double fees compared to those in Sofia and elsewhere. They do not rely on Bulgarian clients, they even often decline their offers. This is happening especially on Fridays and Saturdays when the Greeks literally stand in line for a Bulgarian woman. The taxi drivers are the ones who regulate the traffic of clients and stop the Bulgarians, when necessary. The prostitutes receive from thirty to fifty percent of the money paid, a small part goes to the pimps and the rest goes to the bosses. The media source, as well as bTV (the national television which confirmed the news), is concerned by the fact that taxes are not paid on these services and nothing goes to the state budget.  (We note that the media is concerned only by this fact.)

In addition, bTV announced on 23 June that a Greek citizen was convicted for inducement to prostitution in Sandanski . Another thirty-five Greek citizens are under inquiry for using the services of minors in Sandanski and Petrich. The foreign citizens are connected to the criminal networks in the country and contribute to an environment of sex tourism and trafficking in the region.

Another criminal network engaged in both the traffic of drugs and prostitutes was broken up by the police in Russe. It turned out that the services of fifteen young women were used, some of them minors. These women were forced into and kept in prostitution through drugs. This occurred despite the increased punishment provided by the Criminal Code in Article 155, which stipulates that cases of incitement of prostitution are aggravated when drugs are used as a tool to control women.

In addition, it is worth mentioning the recent amendments in the Bulgarian Criminal Code from May 2007. Some of the changes are the result of debates but others were unexpected and provoked new debates in society. The main argument of the MPs who initiated the latest amendments was the protection of minors.

The changes are illustrated by higher punishments for especially severe cases of lechery or debauchery of minors.  They introduced new provisions against internet use for sexual exploitation of minors, a definition of pornographic materials and enhanced criminal responsibility for disseminating and using pornographic materials.  All had a special focus on the protection of minors.

The amendment that came in response to public opinion is the increased punishment in Article 155 paragraph 5 for incitement of prostitution. By doing so, the MPs rectified the “mistake” they committed in the fall of 2006 by decreasing the responsibility and punishment for some cases of incitement. The majority of people maintain that this contradictory attitude of the MPs toward the same issue in such a short time cannot be explained solely by a mistake. In fact, the amendment from last fall came just in time to relieve the situation of the well-known rap-singer Ivan Glavchev – otherwise known as Vanko 1 – sentenced to twelve years of imprisonment for inducement to prostitution. Thanks to the amendment, Vanko 1 who had served only three years of his sentence, was released because the review procedure coincided with the new, more advantageous provision of the Criminal Code.

While the current amendments of Article 155 repaired the mistake, people like Vanko 1 were able to escape punishment.

Another debate centers around the new provisions on pornography. Although it is fully accepted that the protection of children should be strengthened and the new amendments are a step in that direction, some of the provisions are clearly debatable and even openly challenged by some providers of erotic internet sites and by advocates of freedom of expression. For example, the broad definition of “pornographic material," purportedly borrowed from US legislation, is contested as obviously not corresponding to the current moral values imposed. The other provision which is being debated is the criminalization of the dissemination of pornographic material through the internet. Here, the opposition comes clearly from the internet providers of erotic and pornographic materials.

By accepting stronger criminal responsibility in cases of child pornography, the general ban on internet pornography is too difficult to digest.

The debate is ongoing despite the fact that meetings with one of the MPs who initiated the amendments were postponed several times because of his participation in party meetings instead.

We note that the MP who brought about the changes concerning pornography is the same one who initiated debate about the legalization of prostitution in parliament in early 2006. He is still a proponent of this idea and participates in the working group who is in a process of elaboration of such a draft law.

It will be interesting to follow how effective these new provisions will be with the clear pornographic trends in ads, especially of alcohol, in the media and on billboards in Sofia and in the country, e.g. Vodka “Flirt.” Ads of this type can only create an environment ripe for trafficking and sexual exploitation. Furthermore, this is more than just pornographic material, this is low-quality vodka we are all obliged to “digest” in high doses on a daily basis.