Police Investigate Possible Hate Crime After Man Dies in Plovdiv Beating

A man has died after being beaten near one of Plovdiv’s best-known tourist sites, in an attack Bulgarian police are investigating as a possible hate crime. The victim, reported by different outlets as either 31 or 37, was allegedly lured to a meeting through a dating app before being assaulted close to Youth Hill (Mladezhki Hălm), a landmark near the center of Bulgaria’s second-largest city.

According to local reports, the man was found by passers-by after the attack and taken to hospital with a severe brain injury and multiple fractures. He died several hours later. Several people have been arrested; some reports indicate the attackers were teenagers, including both boys and girls, and that the assault was livestreamed on TikTok. Authorities have not yet confirmed the victim’s name, but Atanas Kalchev, mayor of the nearby town of Krichim, said the man was originally from there.

“The case is extremely serious and is characterised by a high degree of public danger due to the cruelty of the crime committed,” Kalchev said in a statement, adding that the severity of the crime stands regardless of what investigators ultimately determine about motive.

What investigators are looking at

Bulgarian outlet Nova TV reported that police are examining whether the attack was motivated by the victim’s actual or perceived sexual orientation. GLAS (Gays and Lesbians Accepted in Society), a Bulgarian LGBTQ+ rights organization, has called for “a prompt, thorough and impartial investigation.”

The distinction matters legally. Bulgaria added sexual orientation as an aggravating factor for hate crimes to its criminal code in 2023. “If the investigation finds that the motive was indeed hatred based on the victim’s actual or perceived sexual orientation, the law should be applied to its full extent,” GLAS said in a statement.

A familiar and painful pattern

This week’s case has drawn comparisons to two earlier incidents. In 2020, Plovdiv saw a series of homophobic attacks linked to young members of anti-LGBTQ+ groups patrolling areas known as meeting spots for gay men. And in 2008, 26-year-old Mihail Stoyanov was murdered in a Sofia park in an attack that became one of the most widely cited homophobic killings in Bulgaria’s recent history. Bulgarian authorities’ handling of the Stoyanov case was later found wanting: in 2022, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Bulgaria had failed to properly investigate the homophobic motive behind his murder, a censure that still shapes how the country’s LGBTQ+ organizations evaluate police response to violence today.

Bulgaria remains one of the lower-ranked EU member states on ILGA-Europe’s Rainbow Map, which tracks legal protections and social climate for LGBTQ+ people across the continent. It has no legal recognition for same-sex couples and has seen periodic anti-LGBTQ+ political rhetoric, including a 2024 law restricting what schools can teach about sexual orientation and gender identity. Advocates say that climate makes rigorous follow-through on hate crime cases like this one especially important — both for accountability in this specific case and as a signal of how seriously the country’s institutions treat violence against LGBTQ+ people generally.

What happens next

Bulgarian authorities have not released further details on the ongoing investigation, including formal charges against those arrested. TrueQueer will follow the case as more information becomes available.

If you’re affected by violence or discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in Bulgaria, GLAS (glasfoundation.bg) provides support and can help connect people with legal resources.