What happened: The SDSM MP Muhamed Zekiri was physically attacked by a dozen people in a bar on “Kej 13th Noemvri”. According to his testimony, he and his friends were sitting at a table they had reserved in the bar. At a certain point he was approached by N.M., (a person employed as a bodyguard of Sasho Mijalkov — the former director of the Security and Counterintelligence Directorate), who was sitting at another table with a dozen other unknown persons and was asked to leave the premises because, allegedly, it had been reserved for a private party. As they did not go out immediately, NM turned their table over, and the rest of his companions violently, using physical force, pushed MP Zekiri and his friends out. As M.Z. reported, one of the persons showed his ID Badge revealing himself to be a police officer and asked MP Zekiri to show his identification documents. At the moment when he was taking his wallet out, he received several blows by an unknown person to the back of his neck and to his head. The daily bulletin of the Ministry of Interior stated that measures were being taken to find the perpetrator and resolve the incident.
Date, time and location of the incident: 18 February, around 00:30, in a bar on “Kej 13 noemvri” st, Skopje.
Source of information: Daily bulletin of the Ministry of Interior; Electronic media outlet TV 21; electronic media Sloboden pechat (Free Press).
Victim(s) involved: One person.
Type of crime(s): Bodily injury (Article 130, CC), Violence (Article 386, CC)
Perpetrator(s): A group of about a dozen perpetrator(s).
Brief description of the event with bias indicators: In this incident, the bias motive is political affiliation or political conviction, and the bias indicators are:
1. Perception of the victim – according to the statement issued for the media, the victim perceives the incident as bias-motivated;
Status of the case: Unknown.
Response of the local authorities: The MoI’s response to the MHC request for public information regarding this incident stated that after providing medical assistance to the injured party, the police officers from the Sector for Internal Affairs instructed him to submit a record of filing a report at the police station “Centar”, which he did in relation to the committed criminal act “Violence” under Article 386 of the Criminal Code. At the same time, for the purpose of determining the actual situation and solving the case, an interview was conducted with D.B. (employed as a shift manager in the bar), and a public prosecutor was informed about the event and proceeded to give instructions to act in accordance with the Law on Offenses against Public Order and Peace. Pursuant to Article 282 of the Law on Criminal Procedure by the Unit for Violent Crime at the SIA Skopje, a written notification No. 28.11.2 / 02-85 from 20.02.2017 was submitted to the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Skopje. Acting upon this notification and upon the requests submitted to the BPPO Skopje, additional measures and activities were undertaken to solve the case, and three more people were invited for an interview. At the same time, the entire medical documentation was provided from Mother Teresa Clinical Center in Skopje, as well as from DTUUD “Stenik Dion” DOOEL Skopje, which was the company in charge of the video surveillance set in and outside the premises of the catering facility. Two notifications (no.28.11.2-373 from 22.02.2017 and no.28.11.2-393 from 24.02.2017) were submitted about the measures taken by the Unit for violent crime under the SIA Skopje to the PPO Skopje.
Impact on the victim(s) and the community: This incident calls into question the political stability of the country in general.
