From Words to Deeds: Patterns of Discrimination and Inequality
complaint with the CPPEDAE, the two students claimed: “we were denied the right to fly simply because we are Nigerians and we are of another race; this is injustice, intolerance and racism at the highest level”.
Discriminatory Violence Although levels of racially motivated violence are relatively low in Moldova, there are reports of violent attacks against ethnic minorities.154 The case of Salifou Belemvire, narrated below, is one example of such incidents.155 Case Study: Salifou Belemvire Belemvire Salifou, who is from Burkina Faso and has lived in Moldova since 1985, was the victim of a hate crime. In 2013, he was accosted on a minibus by a young man who made insults to him related to his skin color. He tried to ignore him, but that made the attacker more aggressive. The aggressor punched Mr. Salifou several time in the head and different parts of the body causing him injuries.
Mr Belemvire sought justice in all courts. The assailant was sentenced to a year and a half in prison for hooliganism. Mr Belemvire was unsatisfied with this sentence, and so complained to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The case is yet to be considered.
There are grounds for concern that the authorities’ response to such attacks is inadequate. For example, of the four people involved in a racially motivated assault on a Nigerian citizen in September 2011, only one was convicted, and this person was only convicted on a minor charge of hooliganism under the Code of Administrative Offences and required to pay a 154 See above, note 17, Para 114.
155 Radio Free Europe, “From Hate to Crime”, 22 June 2015, available at: http://www.europalibera. org/a/27086258.html.
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