Tag Archives: Crime

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: Acquitted

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Slovakia: Acquitted

Canadian professor David Scheffel, who came to Slovakia to conduct research on child prostitution in Roma settlements near Prešov after the revolution, was prosecuted for sexual crimes for years. He was accused based on the statements of teenage girls from a poor Roma settlement where he conducted his research.

Last year, the girls recanted in an interview with the press and now, they have retracted their statements in court. The court subsequently acquitted David Scheffel.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czechia: The story of a Gangster

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Czechia: The story of a Gangster

Antonín Běla came from a relatively well-off Roma family from the group of kalderáša. He became a prominent crime boss in the 1990s in Czechia. This is his story.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czechia, Crime, and Roma

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Czechia, Crime, and Roma

An article that doesn’t help anyone. A journalist investigating of a Romni who allegedly sold counterfeit sports tickets was threatened by Roma, apparently, one threatening to “pull out a machete and kill him”.

Typical tabloid fare…

News Switzerland

Switzerland and Yenische

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Switzerland and Yenische

Switzerland admitted this week that they committed a crime against humanity when they took away the children of Yenische in the so-called Kinder der Landstrasse between 1926 and 1973. Over 600 children were removed from their families. The press also mentions Sinti and Manouches. They were not really affected by this, as the action was truly centred in the Swiss German part of the country and against Yenische.

However, this legal brief and the Swiss government denied the genocidal aspect of this action.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Crime and Slovenia

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Crime and Slovenia

The Slovene Minister of the Interior Boštjan Poklukar says that Slovenia is one of the safest European countries and that its crime rates are very low. The article goes on to say that “many people are probably left with a bitter taste when they remember the problems caused by Roma in parts of Slovenia or the past epidemic of robberies in Ljubljana by migrants”.

Bad.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bulgaria: Weird

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Bulgaria: Weird

Really weird Bulgarian news … A prisoner behind bars in Plovdiv posts a video on TikTok declaring his love for his girlfriend, rapping it in Romanes. Well, mobiles phones are officially not allowed in prisons in Bulgaria … Maybe only if you don’t pay the guards …

France News Western Europe

French Chronicle …

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French Chronicle …

Not much this week. A really bad news about a 23-year-old Rom who was arrested for reaping his 13 years old cousin that had been promised to him in marriage. The girl, from Romania, managed to escape and is now under protection. This is really bad as it enforces the stereotypes. Other than that, the extreme rightist Alain Soral who is being investigated for antisemitism is now also under investigations for rabid statements about Roma.

Italy News Western Europe

Italy: The Usual

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Italy: The Usual

The article depicts what they call the “Italian Sinti mirror scam”. In this case, the Carabinieri were driving, when they noticed two cars pulled over on the side of the road, with their respective drivers in a heated argument. A young 19-year-old – with a criminal record – allegedly ordered the other driver, a 62-year-old, to stop for alleged damage he had caused while driving. He wanted 350 euros, to end it there, refusing to proceed through insurance channels, as the 62-year-old wanted, who was convinced he had not been involved in any road accident.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bulgaria: Protests

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Bulgaria: Protests

Residents of the Roam neighbourhood of Fakulteta in Sofia have been protesting against Kiril Kirov – known as Kiro the Japanese. The protestes claim that for years Kirov and his family have been harassing the residents of the neighbourhood, extorting them and forcing them to leave their homes, even to emigrate abroad. According to the protesters, the Japanese’s associates were distributing drugs in the neighbourhood, beating and even raping women.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bulgaria: Arrest

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Bulgaria: Arrest

The police searched the properties of Kiril Kirov, nicknamed the Japanese. The police presence in the capital’s “Faculty” Roma district was increased since early in the morning.

At this point, official information on the case is scarce. The Ministry of the Interior only confirms that there were searches. The reason for them, however, remains unclear. It’s not about drug crimes.

Italy News Western Europe

Rome – A Police Raid

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Rome – A Police Raid

A major police control operation was carried out at dawn by the Rome’s Carabinieri, with the support of the Dog Unit and a helicopter. This control focused on the Roma Camp in Via Candoni, which, according to the article is notoriously known as one of the hotbeds of crime in the capital. The intervention is part of a broader context of the fight against illegal activities, aiming to restore perceived and real security in the surrounding community. The operation involved an important identification action, during which 184 people of Romanian and Bosnian origin were registered, including 42 minors.

When you know that these camps are generally enclosed, and that you need to show you papers entering and leaving, you wonder …

News Eastern Europe Russia

Russia: Pogroms

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Russia: Pogroms

Last week, 40-year-old Elena Sarafanova was killed in the city of Korkino (Chelyabinsk region) — two Roma teenagers were accused of the crime. The next day, pogroms began in the city: angry residents went to the settlement, where the Roma live compactly, and set fire to several houses.

It seems that hatred ran deep, and that residents asked “where to deport them if they have no homeland” …

News Eastern Europe Russia

Russia, the War, and Roma

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Russia, the War, and Roma

Police and the Russian National Guard conducted a raid on the night of October 30 in areas of where Roma live in the Gatchina District of the Leningrad Region of Russia. More than 50 men were detained and registered for military service.  A “total check” as part of criminal cases on illegal drug trafficking was carried out in these areas. In one of the houses in the village of Novosiverskaya, according to the Russian police, equipment for the production of synthetic drugs and several kilograms of an unknown substance were found in a family of “nomadic people”. In addition, 15 million rubles, two traumatic pistols and a hunting rifle were allegedly seized.

In brife, Russia is looking for cannon fodder and is highlightin Roma as criminals.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: Not Good

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Slovenia: Not Good

The now 40-year-old Bogdan Miklič, a Rom from the village of Stranska vas pri Novem mesto in Slovenia, had a promising career as a journalist at RTV Slovenia, and he is also active in his Roma Civil society. Among others, he was the president of the association Gypsies once – Roma today,  and still is the legal representative or president of the Roma Association for Dolenjska.

According to the article, he is nowadays most often seen in court for fraud and theft, and in this particular case, for threatening his farmer neighbour.

Whatever he did, this kind of articles does not further the Romani cause.

Bulgaria Greece News Eastern Europe News Western Europe Romania

Greece and the “Copper Mafia”

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Greece and the “Copper Mafia”

Several articles in the Bulgarian press about a police action in Roma settlements in Greece against the “copper mafia”, which steals and trades metals on the black market. According to the police, these are usually Roma gangs, and the target of their raids are copper cables and railway tracks. Catalytic converters are also removed from the cars, which are then sold on the black market for between 400 and 900 euros. The more expensive ones are stolen to order from illegal car repair shops.

Among the people arrested there were Greeks, Bulgarians, and Romanians.

France News Western Europe

French Chronicle …

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Not much and nothing really good in France about Roma this week. A festival against racism in Toulouse. But figthing rcism with stereotyps is not the best approach. Other than that, residents of a commune near Lyon ask for a Roma camp to be closed. And then, petty criminality: in Alsace and near Nantes.

Greece News Western Europe

Greece and Roma

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Another one of those articles. This time, about residents who are “terrorised”, “trembling”, when faced by Roma “Criminality”. Clearly, there is a problem in some neighbourhoods, but such articles will not help solving the issues.

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