The Bulgarian National Assembly on August 7 approved changes in the Criminal Code and the law on protection from domestic violence following a shocking case of abuse against an 18-year-old woman that sparked mass protests.
The deputies, gathered in an extraordinary session, adopted the changes by a vote of 144-58. They provide for the right to protection for people who have experienced violence in the context of an intimate relationship or for victims of violence who are neither married to their potential abuser nor are they in an actual relationship.
Eight lawmakers abstained.
Thousands of people staged protest rallies in Sofia and other Bulgarian cities after a woman from the central city of Stara Zagora was beaten and cut multiple times with a knife by her boyfriend.
The incident was only made public on July 28 following the victim's family's frustration with the slow pace of the investigation.
Angry demonstrators called for an overhaul of legislation and improved protection measures for women, carrying banners that read "Not a single woman more.''
The 26-year-old suspect, identified in the media as Georgi Georgiev, was arrested after the attack, but a court in Stara Zagora later released him after rating the woman's injuries as "light."
He was rearrested on July 31 amid the public outrage and the prosecutor's office announced that it was "accelerating" the investigation.
Bulgarian police statistics show that 18 women were killed in the first three months of this year by their suspected partners. Women's rights activists say the number is much higher.
