What happened: On 17 January 2019, at 11:50 a.m., at the Police Station Centre, D.B. (26) from Skopje
reported that on 12 January 2019, around 2:00 p.m., on a public bus line no. 5, on Mitropolit Teodosij
Gologanov Street he was physically assaulted by an unidentified individual. Measures are being taken for
complete resolution of the case.
(Note: the case was reported to the police station after the victim reported at the Helsinki Committee an
assault in a bus only on the ground of his sexual orientation)
Date, time and place of the incident: 12.01.2019, around 2:00 p.m., on a Skopje public transport bus, on
Mitropolit Teodosij Gologanov Street.
Source of information: Request for FLA to Helsinki, MOI’s daily newspaper.
Victim(s) involved: One victim.
Type of crime(s): Violence (Article 386, CC of RNM).
Perpetrators: One unidentified perpetrator.
Brief description of the event with bias indicators: In this incident the bias motive is sexual orientation,
with the bias indicators being:
1. Sexual orientation – after the perpetrator identified the victim as an LGBTI person, he assaulted
him;
2. Location – public transport buses are often a place of hate crime, with line no. 5 being the
most common line with registered hate incidents;
3. Pattern of previous incidents – assaults on the ground of prejudices related to the victim’s
appearance and manner of communication are a previously observed pattern among incidents
on the ground of the victim’s sexual orientation.
Case status: Unknown.
Response of the local authorities: Although the case was reported at the Police Station Centre, the
perpetrator has still not been identified. After being reported to the police station, the case was qualified
as a misdemeanour, not a crime offence.
Impact on the victims and the community: These types of incidents call into question the safety of the
LGBTI community.
