What happened: The External Crime Office in Kocani pressed criminal charges against S.J. (61) from the village of Cheshinovo and D.A. (36) from the village of Obleshevo on reasonable grounds to suspect that they committed the crime “Spreading Racial and Xenophobic Material via an Information System”. In the course of 2019, S.J. posted photographs and statuses on his Facebook profile promoting or inciting hatred and violence.
Brief description of the incident with bias indicators: In this incident the bias motive is ethnic origin, with the bias indicators being:
- Pattern of previous incidents – inciting and spreading ethnic hatred and inciting violence through social networks is becoming a very common manner of committing hate crimes.
Response of the local authorities: Perpetrators identified, criminal charges pressed.
Impact on the victims and the community: These types of incidents call into question the general safety in the country and the cohabitation among different ethnic groups in society.
