What happened: At noon on 1 March 2018, a 17-year-old boy was stabbed at “Rekord” in the center of
Skopje, MoI informed.
The boy was assaulted by two persons and stabbed with a sharp object in his stomach. The perpetrators
most likely used a knife.
The attack took place at 12:40 at the bustling bus stop of Rekord in the center of Skopje. The passers-by
called an ambulance, and the injured teenager was taken to the General Hospital St. Naum of Ohrid.
The police is investigating the case, two perpetrators have been taken into custody, and two criminal
charges have been pressed against them.
Date, time and location of the incident: 1 March 2018, at noon, Rekord, Skopje.
Source of information: Daily newsletter of the Ministry of Interior, the electronic media outlet sportmedia.
mk: electronic media outlet sportclub.mk, television channel: Kanal 5 TV.
Victim(s) involved: a 16-year-old student who is also a fan of Komiti.
Type of crime(s): Heavy bodily injury (Article 131, CC), Violence (Article 386, CC)
Perpetrator(s): two idenified perpetrators.
Brief description of the event with bias indicators: In this incident, the bias motive is ethnicity, while the
bias indicators are:
1. Ethnicity and affiliation with a supporters’ group – the victim was of Macedonian ethnicity and was a
member of the supporters’ group “Komiti”, while the attackers were allegedly of Albanian ethnicity and
were members of the supporters’ group “Shverceri”, although the leaders of the two supporters’ groups
denied this;
2. The location –The incident took place in public, at a bus stop.
Status of the case: criminal charges were pressed against the minor (15) and R.A. (18) for the crime of
“Violence” under Article 386 од CC. There is no information on the subsequent course of the proceedings.
Response of the local authorities: MoI provided a response to the Committee’s request for public
information regarding this incident from their own records, but they did not confirm any of the indicators
qualifying this crime as a hate crime.
Impact on the victims and the community: This incident calls into question the ethnic co-existence of
the two major ethnic communities in the country.
