The Sofia City Court acquitted Asen Genov and Tsvetelina Sarbinska, accused of hooliganism for painting the monument in front of the Bulgarian Socialist Party offices in Sofia last November.

As a part of the anti-government protests in 2013 Genov, a blogger and active participant in the protests, and Sarbinska reportedly painted the monument, depicting communist partisans, in pink and purple and wrote “WHO? BCP – DISGRACE”. WHO? being one of the popular slogans of the protests and BCP referring to the old name of BSP – Bulgarian Communist Party.

Genov and Sarbinska were arrested and charged with hooliganism.

Judge Miroslava Todorva ruled that the painting of the monument and the writing of the slogans was a form of expression of political opinion and pointed out that such acts were protected both by Bulgaria's Constitution and the European Human Rights Convention.

“Expression of political opinion is highly protected because it is one of the foundations of democratic society and one of the main conditions for its furthering,” Todorova wrote in her motives.

Todorova also noted that the prosecution could not prove beyond reasonable doubt that it was indeed Genov and Sarbinska who painted the monument, as at the time and place were present another two persons.

Genov and Sarbinska did not admit to painting the monument, but said they were assuming the political responsibility.