What happened: SEI Ohrid, pressed criminal charges against R.D. (45) from Ohrid on the grounds of reasonable
suspicion for having committed the criminal offence “Spreading Racial and Xenophobic Material via an
Information System.” On 04.04.2019, he spread racial and xenophobic written material via his Facebook
profile, promoting and inciting hatred, discrimination or violence against a certain group, members of a
political party.
Date, time and place of incident: 04.04.2019, Facebook, Ohrid.
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, R.D. (45) from Ohrid.
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 – social media such as Facebook is particularly used as a platform
for these types of incidents.
Status of case: Criminal charges pressed.
Response of the local authorities: The perpetrator was detained, awaiting charges on the grounds of the
criminal offence pursuant Article 394-d from CC of RNM. The criminal offence 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.
