After Georgi Kuzev's Killing, Bulgarian Police Uncover a Neo-Nazi Network in Plovdiv

When we covered the killing of Georgi Kuzev earlier this month, the story was already hard to read: a 31-year-old gay man from Plovdiv, lured to a park through a fake dating profile, beaten for over an hour by a group of teenagers, and left to make his own way down Youth Hill before he died of his injuries. Bulgarian prosecutors charged five teens — three boys and two girls, aged 14 to 17 — with murder. In the two weeks since, the case has widened into something bigger and more disturbing than a single act of teenage violence.

A wider network comes into view

On August 15 and 16, Bulgaria’s State Agency for National Security (DANS) and police carried out a joint operation in Plovdiv, ultimately detaining 18 people believed to be connected to a group associated with those charged in Kuzev’s death. According to Plovdiv police chief Senior Commissioner Vasil Kostadinov, officers found objects and symbols tied to ideologies banned under Bulgarian law, including swastikas, at a location the group is alleged to have used for regular gatherings over roughly two years.

Investigators say the detained group is allegedly linked to Blood & Honour, an international neo-Nazi organization with a history of activity across Europe. Those held ranged from students to people with previous criminal records; none were minors under 14, though a 17-year-old girl was among the detainees. Police also said one detainee is allegedly connected to a separate assault earlier in August on two Nepalese nationals in Plovdiv — a detail that, if it holds up, suggests the network’s activity extended beyond the Kuzev case. Notably, authorities confirmed that a pre-trial investigation into the same group and the same gathering location had been opened in 2023, then quietly terminated.

The investigation is ongoing, and Bulgarian authorities have been careful to describe the network’s scope as still unclear. What’s already evident is that a killing initially described as an act of teenage cruelty is now being examined as part of a broader pattern of organized extremist activity in the city.

Protesters want the law to change

The case has also triggered a rare public reckoning over how Bulgaria’s justice system handles violence committed by minors. On August 13, protesters gathered outside the courthouse in Plovdiv — the same day two of the accused teenage girls appealed their detention before the Court of Appeal — carrying a petition aimed at Article 63 of Bulgaria’s Penal Code, which governs sentencing for offenders under 18.

The petition calls for an end to automatic sentence reductions in cases of intentional homicide and other serious crimes when the perpetrator is 16 or older, arguing that current law allows exceptionally violent acts to be treated too leniently simply because of the defendants’ age. Organizers are also pushing for prevention programs aimed at identifying group violence and aggressive behavior earlier, alongside reintegration programs for young offenders — a combination that reads less like a punitive backlash than an attempt to address the problem on both ends. The Court of Appeal ultimately upheld the detention of the two teenage girls, a decision described as final.

Bulgarian investigators have said the teenagers charged in Kuzev’s killing described themselves, in the aftermath, as having believed he was a pedophile — echoing the language of “predator catching” groups that have targeted gay and bisexual men on dating apps in several countries. Authorities have been explicit that this claimed motive does nothing to soften the nature of what happened: Kuzev was burned with cigarettes, had his eyebrows shaved, and was nearly strangled during more than an hour of violence, some of it filmed and shared on social media.

Why this matters beyond Plovdiv

Bulgaria ranks near the bottom of ILGA-Europe’s Rainbow Map, and Plovdiv itself has a documented history of organized homophobic violence — a series of attacks connected to young far-right groups took place in the city in 2020. What’s unfolding now suggests that history didn’t go away so much as it kept meeting, largely unbothered, until a killing made it impossible to ignore.

For Bulgaria’s LGBTQ+ community, the emerging picture is grim but not without a silver lining: a case that could easily have been treated as an isolated tragedy is instead prompting scrutiny of the networks that produce this kind of violence, and public pressure for legal reform that outlasts the news cycle. Whether that translates into lasting change — in policing, in sentencing law, or in how seriously Bulgarian institutions treat anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes — is still an open question. But for the first time in a long time, it’s a question being asked out loud, in public, outside a courthouse.

We’ll continue following this story as the investigation and the push for Penal Code reform move forward.