Article 164
(Amended, SG No. 27/2009)
(1) (Supplemented, SG No. 74/2015) A person who propagates or instigates discrimination,
violence or hatred on religious basis by speech, through the press or other mass media, through
electronic information systems or in another way, shall be punished by imprisonment for up to
four years or probation and a fine from BGN five thousand to ten thousand.
(2) A person who desecrates, destroys or damages a religious temple, a house of prayer,
sanctuary or an adjoined building, their symbols or gravestones, shall be punished by
imprisonment up to three years or by probation, and a fine from BGN three thousand to ten
thousand.
Article 165
(1) A person who, by force or threat hinders the citizens from freely practising their faith
or from performing their religious rituals and services, which do not violate the laws of the
country, the public order and morality, shall punished by imprisonment for up to one year.
(2) The same punishment shall also be imposed upon a person who in the same way
compels another to take part in religious rituals and services.
(3) For the acts under Article 163, committed against groups of the population, individual
citizens or their property, in connection with their religious affiliation, the punishments provided
therein shall be applied.
Article 166
(Supplemented, SG No. 28/1982, amended, SG No. 92/2002, effective 1.01.2005 with
respect to the punishment of probation - amended, SG No. 26/2004, effective 1.01.2004, SG No.
103/2004, effective 1.01.2005, SG No. 27/2009)
A person who forms a political organisation on religious basis or who by speech, through
the press, action or in another way, uses the church or religion for propaganda against the rule of
the people or its undertakings, shall be punished by imprisonment for up to three years, if he is
not subject to more severe punishment.
Section III
Crimes Against Political Rights of Citizens
(Title amended, SG No. 1/1991)
Article 167
(1) (Amended, SG No. 103/2004, effective 1.01.2005, effective 1.01.2005, previous text of
Article 167, SG No. 75/2006, amended, SG No. 27/2009, supplemented, SG No. 19/2014,
effective 5.03.2014, amended, SG No. 74/2015) A person who through violence, deception,
threat or in some other unlawful way, hinders someone from expressing his right of vote or of
being elected or to vote in a referendum or to participate in a collection of signatures on a
proposal for the conduct of a referendum, shall be punished by imprisonment from one to three
years and a fine from BGN one thousand to ten thousand.
(2) (New, SG No. 75/2006, amended and supplemented, SG No. 27/2009, supplemented,