What happened: The external crime office Gostivar pressed criminal charges against B.S.(64) from Gostivar
on the grounds of reasonable suspicion for having committed the crime “Spreading Racial and Xenophobic
Material via an Information System”. On 15.03.2019, the reported posted a message calling to violence on
his Facebook profile.
Date, time and place of incident: 15.03.2019, Facebook, Gostivar.
Source of information: MOI’s daily newsletter.
Victim(s) involved: No victims.
Type of crime(s): Spreading Racial and Xenophobic Material via an Information System (Article 394-d, CC
of RNM).
Perpetrator(s): One identified perpetrator. B.S. from Gostivar.
Brief description of the event with bias indicators: In this incident the bias motive is ethnicity, with the bias
indicators being:
1. Ethnicity – the perpetrator spread hate speech against a different ethnic community;
2. Pattern of previous incidents – very often social media, particularly Facebook, is used as a
platform for this type of incidents.
Status of case: Criminal charges pressed.
Response of the local authorities: The perpetrator was detained and charged with criminal charges for
committing a criminal offence pursuant to Article 394-d from CC of RNM. The crime was qualified as a hate
crime.
Impact on the victims and the community: These types of incidents call into question the general safety in
the country and the co-existence among different ethnic groups in society.
