Hisham El Haki and Yana El Haki have two children and are awaiting their third one. The pregnant Bulgarian woman and her husband are living in Morocco, but returned to Bulgaria to welcome their baby. They were walking in Sofia's center when they were attacked in front of the National Library by men wearing brass knuckles.

"He turned around to embrace me and said 'I love you!' At this moment, several guys shouted 'Who do you think you are to speak in English!' They hit him really hard, and he fell on the ground. I tried to help him," said Yana El Haki, in a piece by Yana Nikolova from NOVA television.

Hisham said that none of the many bystanders tried to help. Moreover, a police officer was also a witness to what happened and failed to act. The authorities advised them to file a complaint. Similar to this case was the one of a black man who was attacked in Sofia and had to turn to the European Court of Human Rights for proper redress.

"Bulgaria was convicted [by the Court of Human Rights] because of the absolute lack of action by the prosecution," said Mirela Zarichinova, from the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee. "It is important not to keep quiet. If we keep quiet, this will happen again to other people."

The story as reported by NOVA television is available here.