Oh look, my first SLAPP case ♡
On the morning of November 12th, a very polite and a bit-too-curious court officer served me with papers. “It’s from someone called Branchevski,” she said, “something about your property?”
“Oh, ok,” I said, not surprised that the district mayor Emil Branchevski is suing me but very surprised it has to do with my property. Turns out, the court officer glanced at the papers but managed to catch just some of the words and missed that I was being sued for non-property (non-pecuniary) damage.
It would have been funny though, if the district mayor went for my property, which consists of my apartment, since our entire conflict was born out of his heartless demolition of the Romani quarter housing about 200+ of my husband’s relatives. A ruling from the European Court for Human Rights didn’t stop him to destroy the century-old mahala, nor did appeals from activists and human rights lawyers, nor pleas from the families who were left to live among the ruins of their homes. In he went with the gendarmerie at 5 in the morning and razed the mahala to dust.
When the court officer said “Branchevski” and “your property” in the same sentence, for a split-second I thought, “Huh, he seems to have developed a taste for tinkering with people’s homes.” But no, the court officer was wrong. He was suing me for the far more modest lump sum of 25,001 BGN (12,500 EUR) for causing him non-pecuniary damage in the aftermath of the demolition.
You see, he lost appetite and sleep, and had sad thoughts because of several Facebook posts from April to July this year, criticizing him for his racist actions.
He claims that to this day people bring up my posts to him and this makes him feel not-ok.
As a writer, I can only take this as a compliment. As an activist, though, I find it both funny and angering that while people whose houses he had destroyed were literally lighting campfires with their belongings among the ruins of their homes, and were huddling under tents together with their children, elders, and sick relatives during the heavy spring rains, and were getting strokes from the stress…. he was the one who lost appetite. He was the one who was truly sad.
Anyway, the wheels of justice will start turning at some point early next year. Until then, above all else, let’s keep in our thoughts this particular district mayor and all other politicians in power who might be having sad thoughts amid ethnic cleansing campaigns. It must be so hard on them, particularly around Christmas. Praying for them to not lose their appetite.
Love,
Martina
