The concept of a hate crime will be introduced to the knowledge of Bulgarian police, announced Vice-Minister of Interior Veselin Vuchkov at the opening of a seminar on the topic.

The seminar, held at the Ministry of Interior Academy, is devoted to crimes caused by hate and xenophobia.

Only end of last year did the Bulgarian Parliament make amendments to the Penal Code which explicitly specify crimes related to the instigation of hate or based on hate against different groups of society.

Several incidents throughout 2010 involving beatings of people ranging from Roma to leftist activists provoked the rage of rights NGOs, which claimed that Bulgarian law cannot tell apart a hate crime.

At the seminar Tuesday Vice-Minister Vuchkov claimed that the cases of hate crimes in Bulgaria are "exceedingly rare."

At the same time, he admitted that "almost no statistics" has been conducted over the years by police on those occurences.

As part of the process of enforcing the new provisions of the Penal Code, Bulgarian police accross the country will participate in special trainings on the issues of hate crimes and xenophobia.

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