What happened: Unknown persons forcibly entered the campaign headquarters of the Municipal Committee of SDSM located in the “Shoping Centar” Kocani, where four members were present and
they were threatened with physical force. Thereby, one of the persons removed the election poster
material, which was placed on the window of the headquarters, he threw it into a cardboard box and
left. In MOI’s Daily Newsletter it is stated that measures were being taken for fi nding the perpetrators
and resolving the incident.
Date, time and location of the incident: 30 November, 18:55, headquarters of Municipal Committee
of SDSM located in “Shoping Centar” – Kochani.
Source of information: MOI Daily Newsletter.
Victim(s) involved: Four persons.
Type of the crime(s): Threatening the safety (Article 144, CC).
Perpetrator(s): A group of unknown perpetrators.
Brief description of the incident with bias indicators: In this incident, the bias motive is political
affi liation and the bias indicators are:
1. Target location – the target location is the headquarters of the main opposition party;
2. Pattern of previous incidents − this incident is the latest in the growing trend of damaging billboards
with political content during the pre-election period.
Status of the case: Under investigation.
Response of Local Authorities: In MOI’s response to the Committee’s request for public information
regarding this incident, it is stated that after the reporting of the event and on the authorization
of the Public Prosecutor, an investigation was conducted by the investigation team from the Outer
Criminal Affairs Offi ce in Kochani. Also, a witness of the incident was questioned and the Public
Prosecutor in Kochani was informed about the undertaken measures, and thus it was established
that there were elements of a criminal act under Article 392, paragraph 1 of CC, i.e. autocracy, which
is prosecuted as a private lawsuit. The incident was also reported with PPO Kochani and the PO
issued an order for taking measures upon the reported incident. Acting upon the order, the entire
case material was delivered to PPO.
Impact on the victim(s) and the community: This incident calls into question the political stability of
the country in general.
