The leader of the ultranationalist party National Front for the Salvation of Bulgaria, Valeriy Simeonov, who is also the current deputy prime minister and chairman of the National Council for Collaboration on Issues Related to the Integration of Minorities, has been convicted by the Burgas Regional Court for anti-Roma hate speech. He delivered the hate-filled speech on December 17, 2014, from the rostrum of the National Assembly.

Here is the statement for which Simeonov was convicted:

"Undoubtedly, the majority of the Gypsy ethnicity lives far beyond any laws, rules or standards for common human behaviour. Laws do not apply to them. Taxes and charges are abstractions which they do not understand. Electricity and water bills as well as social and health insurances are replaced by the belief that they have only rights. They do not have any obligations or responsibilities. Robbery and thievery are the only ways they use in order to earn their livelihood. Violating the law is their standard behaviour. Childbirth is a profitable business at the expense of the state. According to them, the care for the offspring means to raise minors for begging and prostitution. They teach their children how to become thieves and how to sell drugs. The Gypsy barons are imposing a lifestyle which contradicts the legal standards of the Bulgarian society. Bulgaria is on the verge of an ethnic crisis. There are two irreconcilable societies in our anguishing country and they exclude each other. On one side we have the poor pensioners who pay their bills and hang themselves on improvised loops hooked up to the ceilings of their homes because they are ill and don't have money. On the other side we have aggressive thieves and rapists who are insanely drunk when they receive their monthly social benefits or the money that the state gives them to raise their children. The question is, what are the reasons that make part of the Gypsy ethnicity a force which is destroying our statehood and legislation? Why are the people who used to work and send their children to school and contribute to the creation of public goods during the socialism, just 25 years ago, now so arrogant, complacent and cruel humanoids? They are requiring to be paid without the obligation to work. They want health benefits even when they are not ill. They ask the state for money in order to raise their children and leave them to play with pigs in the streets. They want maternity benefits for women who have the instincts of street bitches. What created in our swarthy compatriots the belief that everything is allowed, that they are permitted to do whatever they want and everybody is obliged to feed them, dress them and treat them for free?"

Two Roma journalists, Kremena Budinova and Ognian Isaev, filed the case against Simeonov. They were represented in court by the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee as part of the organisation's Legal Defence Programme.

The Court found that these words constitute harassment under the Protection from Discrimination Act as "they lead to the offence of the dignity of the person and create a hostile, degrading, insulting and offensive environment. Anyone who belongs to the Roma ethnicity may be affected by them. It is not necessary for the statement to refer to the entire Roma community in order to be perceived as prejudicing the dignity of any individual who defines himself as Roma."

Simeonov was ordered to cease with this offensive behaviour as well as to abstain from any forms of abuse in the future. The claimants do not want compensation.

The decision is subject to appeal.