Students gathered on March 18 in front of the National Assembly in Sofia for a silent protest.

The protest was organised by the Association for development and public control SROKSOS, Bulgarian broadcaster mediapool.bg said.

The day before, 3000 students and the family of 21-year-old murder victim Radostina Evtimova took part in a protest procession in Varna.

The body of Radostina Evtimova was found on the evening of March 6 with multiple stab wounds to her body and face. That same night a 21-year-old suspect, the son of a local politician, was arrested.

Friends of Radostina, students from Sofia University and family members of murder victims gathered on March 18 in Sofia. "We are here to support our fellow students' protest in Varna," university student Maria Todorova told journalists.

"We want a fair trial for the murderer of Radostina, without political pressure from his father," mediapool.bg quoted Todorova as saying.

Snejana Angelova, mother of 22-year-old Diliana Geogieva from Sofia, who was killed by her husband in front of their three-year-old child, asked for article 55 of the Penal Code to be revoked.

Artile 55 of the Bulgarian Penal Code deals with exceptional circumstances, in which case it instructs the court to "determine a punishment under the lowest limit," among others.

According to Angelova, the article almost forces the courts to give lower sentences. The man convicted for the murder of her daughter, Angelova said, was a recidivist, but was sentenced to 14 years' imprisonment.

Angelova said she appealed against the verdict, but has little hope of a tougher sentence if the article was not repealed.