What happened: A 17-year-old boy, while travelling on route Kumanovo – Skopje in a minibus with
his two friends, on “3-ta Makedonska Brigada” Blvd in Skopje near the “Maria Curie Sklodowska”
school, was physically attacked by six unknown people, most likely students who traveled in the
same minibus who, after asking him something, hit him with a fist on the head, whereby the victim
fell to the ground. According to the information reported to the media, based on the victims’ and
his father’s statements, he was first approached by one of the perpetrators, who was later joined by
the others who started threatening him and telling him not to come to school anymore, after which
they physically attacked him by hitting him with their fists and kicking him on the head and body. The
juvenile got off in the vicinity of SUGS “Dimitar Vlahov” and reported the incident to police officers.
The boy sustained injuries to the head and body from the physical attack. Measures are being taken
to fully solve case.
Date, time and location of the incident: 22 March, 13:30, in a public transport minibus travelling on
route Kumanovo-Skopje.
Source of information: Daily bulletin of the Ministry of Interior, Electronic media outlet 21 TV.
Victim(s) involved: One juvenile person.
Type of crime(s): Violence (Article 386, CC), Bodily injury (Article 130, CC), Endangering the Security
(Article 144, CC)
Perpetrator(s): Group of 6 people.
Brief description of the event with bias indicators: In this incident, the bias motive is ethnicity,
nationality or language, while the bias indicators are:
1. Difference in ethnicity – due to the different ethnicity of the students in the aforementioned
secondary school, it is possible that the perpetrators and the victims are of a different ethnicity;
Status of the case: Criminal charges have been pressed against three persons on grounds of suspicion
of committing the criminal act of “Violence” pursuant to Article 386 of the CC.
Response of the local authorities: The MoI’s response to the MHC request for public information
regarding these incidents stated that after taking adequate measures and activities SIA Skopje
submitted criminal charges (CU no.2993/17) to the Basic Prosecution Skopje against four people on
grounds of reasonable suspicion that they committed the crime of “Violence” in accordance with
Article 386 from CC.
Impact on the victim(s) and the community: This incident calls into question the ethnic coexistence
between the two largest communities in the country.
