The Human Rights Project, a non-governmental organisation for monitoring the human rights of the Roma in Bulgaria, won two important cases in court, setting legal precedents of punishing police brutality against Roma On December 15.1995 the district court in Pazardzhik sentenced The Ministry of Interior to pay to Kiril Yordanov, 24 year-old Roma,10,000 leva as reparation for light bodily injury caused by policemen during an authorised police operation in the Roma neighbourhood in Pazardzhik. At Jawn on June 30. 1992 the police undertook what the Human Rights Project called a punitive expedition against the local Roma community, under the pretext of passport checks and arms search. Yordanov was one of dozens of Roma victims beaten and ill-treatedindiscriminately that day, in revenge for alleged criminal behaviour of a Roma the day before.The civil court decision, which came into effect on February 29. 1996.is a result of three and half years of work of lawyer Ilko Dimitrovwho, apart from being the senior litigator of The Human Rights Project,is a poet and writer. His imaginative strategy was to make use ofa law for liability of the state and sue the most powerful state institution for damages, in a case when the individual perpetrators could notbe identified by the victim, because they were wearing balaclavas during the police action. The 10.000 leva is a very small sum of money, but the symbolism of the lawsuit can turn out more expensive to abusive authorities: for the first time in the region, a Roma beaten by police received justice, even though the concrete abusive law enforcement officials remained anonymous. As to cases when the identity of the perpetrators is known, The Human Rights Project has more to hope for in its effort to provide access to justice for the victims of racist violence. On March 4.1996 the Military Court in Pleven sentenced two police officers from the Danube city of Vidin to 8 months terms of suspended imprisonment. Last year in April, the policemen had beaten two Roma schoolboys shortly after detonation, which had taken place in the boy's high school. The HRP lawyer is currently appealing the sentence, demanding an effective prison term for the policemen.In the year period from 1992 to 1995, the Human Rights Project, under the leadership of human rights defender Dimitrina Petrova, filed 32 criminal complaints for offenses perpetrated by police officers. However, challenging both the rigid procedural environment ant anti-Gypsy prejudice has been far from easy. In 14 cases the prosecutor initially decided not start a criminal investigation. A number of criminal investigations are still underway, being procrastinated far beyond deadlines provided by the law.