In most serious cases, the hate crime is considered to be a criminal offense. When a person is charged with a crime, they are called “the accused” and the criminal charges are examined in criminal proceedings.
Aggravating circumstances
In Moldova, the Criminal Code establishes that any crime committed with a biased motive towards an individual or a group due to the victim’s race, colour, nationality, ethnicity, citizenship, religion, age, sex, gender, sexual orientation, language, political views, disability, health condition, social status or social origin may be considered as an aggravating circumstance. The presence of biased motives is taken into consideration regardless of whether the offense is committed against individuals with protected characteristics, their property, or those who support or associate with them, whether the association is real or perceived. Moreover, an offense can be considered prejudice-motivated even if other motives are also present alongside prejudice as a motivating factor. However, it is essential to note that the mere presence of protected characteristics in the victim's profile doesn't by itself mean the crime was caused by prejudice.
If the aggravating circumstances are already defined as elements of certain offenses, the perpetrator should be charged with that specific form of the offence. In such cases, they cannot simultaneously be considered by the judge as aggravating circumstances.
example The homicide, incitement to suicide, bodily harm, rape, illegal sterilization are examples of offences that include an aggravated form of the offence as motivated by bias.
example A person with a dark skin has been attacked and seriously harmed with a biased motive due to the person’s race.
Read more about the right to a fair trial in criminal proceedings.
Hate speech
Hate speech is not a hate crime, as it has a different structure from it. Unlike hate crime, hate speech does not have the element of the “base offence”. That means, if the hate speech would not contain the bias or intolerance motive, there would be no criminal offence to be punished, only an expression of a person. However, hate speech and hate crimes have certain similar characteristics, namely, both are motivated by hatred or intolerance against individuals or groups based on certain attributes.
Sometimes during the hate crime, perpetrator may also publicly express hate or violence based on the victim’s ethnicity, religion or other characteristics.
The Criminal Law distinguishes hate speech as a substantive criminal offence. For the crime to be considered hate speech, it must fit the description of hate speech outlined in the Article 176 (2) or Article 346 of the Criminal Code. Less serious forms of hate speech are penalized under the Contraventions Code.
Read more about hate speech and the differences between hate crimes and hate speech.