What happened: The Internal Affairs Department in Prilep, on 23.12.2020 pressed criminal charges against S.М. (36) from Prilep on reasonable grounds that he committed the criminal offence Spreading Racial and Xenophobic Material via a Computer System. С.М. on 28.10.2020 posted an offensive photograph and a comment inciting violence on his Facebook profile.
Brief description of the incident with bias indicators: In this incident the bias motive is the assumed ethnic origin since the offensive photograph and comment inciting violence were directed towards a specific ethnic group in the country, with the bias indicators being:
- Ethnic origin – the perpetrator belonged to one ethnic community and incited violence against another ethnic community;
- Pattern of previous incidents – previous incidents of similar nature.
Impact on the victims and the community: These types of incidents call into question the general safety in the country and the cohabitation among the different national, ethnic and linguistic groups in society.
