What happened: Three perpetrators driving in a vehicle assaulted fi ve young people (among which
was the President of the youth branch of VMRO DPMNE in the municipality of Centar). After four
of them managed to run away, the assailants caught the President of the youth branch, continued
beating him, forced him into the vehicle and drove him for a short period around the neighbourhood
and took pictures of him in the vehicle.
Date, time and location of the incident: April 18th, 02:00 hrs. Municipality of Centar, Skopje.
Source of information: National electronic media Kurir.
Victim(s) involved: Five young people were assaulted, one of which was beaten more severely and
illegally deprived of his freedom for a short period of time.
Type of the crime(s): Violence (Art.386 CCRM), Illegal deprivation of freedom (Art.140 CCRM).
Perpetrator(s): Three males.
Brief description of incident with bias indicators: In this incident, the bias motive is the political
affi liation and political persuasion, and the bias indicator is:
1. Witness perception – several media reported that the assailants ware members and activists of SDSM;
2. Nature of violence – the incident was carried out in public, photographs were made of the victim
during the incident;
3. Lack of other motives.
Status of the case: Misdemeanour charges were pressed.
Response of local authorities: The MOI answered upon a Request for public information sent by the
committee that three misdemeanor charges were pressed for the act of physical assault. Despite
several media reporting that the MOI will submit criminal charges for the deprivation of freedom as
well, to the moment of writing this report, the Committee has no such information.
Impact on the victim(s) and the community: This type of incidents brings into question the general
political stability in the country.
