Attacks
Moldova is not a country where hate crime is a frequent phenomenon. On March 25, 2013, it was reported that a 59-year-old resident of Cociulia Nouă village, Leova district, was stabbed to death for demanding to talk to him in Romanian language. Two men met in a bar. One scolded another for a greeting in Russian. After the bar closed and everyone went home, the offended came to his neighbour and stabbed him with a knife, leading to instant death.
There were two statements of threats. The authors of those were nationalists (on February 7 it concerned A. Gutu , and on June 27 - V. Pavlichenko ), who clearly attempted to "gain points" as the victims. On February 7, Ana Gutu posted that following her statements that the education institutions with non-national instruction language should not be financed by the government, she was threatened and intimidated.
One xenophobic attack was noted in 2014. On January 19, unionist historian Vyacheslav Stavila tried to attack an opposition journalist Pavel Grigorciuk. Editor of GRENADA was taking photos of Mr Stavila, which the latter did not like. Stavila began to demand from the staff that they call the police. A brawl broke out, which was soon separated.
According to OSCE data from 2016 to 2020 40 hate crimes were committed, which, according to experts, is an underestimation of the authorities. So, if officially in 2016 there were 5 attacks in the country, according to non-governmental organizations, there were 27 attacks. Of these, 5 incidents were motivated by anti-Semitism, 5 were motivated by hatred against LGBTI people and 1 was motivated by hatred towards the Roma. Characteristically, the ODIHR noted this year that law enforcement agencies in Moldova did not record bias motives in hate crimes.
In 2017, official and unofficial data coincided - 17 non-hate crimes were recorded. Of these, one crime was against refugees, 1 was against Roma, 2 were anti-Semitic and 5 were anti-LGBTI. At the same time, ODIHR again noted that Moldovan law enforcement agencies did not record bias motives in hate crimes.
In 2018, 10 hate crimes were officially recorded. NGOs reported 11 offences. Of these, there was one attack on a Jewish cemetery, one attack on a Muslim woman wearing a hijab, and five attacks motivated by hate against LGBT people. ODIHR again noted that law enforcement agencies in Moldova did not record bias motivations in hate crimes.
In 2019, Moldovan law enforcement agencies did not register a single hate crime, while non-governmental organizations recorded 15 incidents. Of these, two incidents related to hatred of migrants motivated by racism, 1 attack on a Roma family, 2 motivated by anti-Semitism, including 1 act of vandalism and 5 attacks against LGBTI people, including 1 act of vandalism. Moldovan law enforcement agencies again did not record bias motives in hate crimes.
In 2020, the police registered 8 hate crimes, while NGOs recorded 18 episodes. Of these, 3 are racially motivated, 1 is anti-Roma, 2 is anti-Semitic, 1 is Islamophobic, 1 is gender-based, and again five are anti-LGBTI. 2020 was the first year that ODIHR law enforcement did not record a lack of bias in the commission of hate crimes.
