What happened: The priests indicate that on 10.03.2018, incidents involving damage to church property
i.e. writing Satanist graffiti on the wall of the St. Spas Church in Drachevo occurred. Such incidents also
happened before, and the cases were reported to the Police Precinct and to the Municipality of Kisela Voda.
The priests qualify these as serious incidents which cannot simply be ascribed to underage persons.
The police is after the perpetrators.
Date, time and location of the incident: 10.03.2018, St. Spas Church, Drachevo, Skopje.
Source of information: MoI’s daily newsletter, electronic media outlet ako.mk. Victim(s) involved: Apart
from material damage, there were no victims in this incident. Type of crime(s): Damage of Objects of Others
(Article 243, CC). Perpetrator(s): Unknown perpetrator(s).
Brief description of the event with bias indicators: In this incident, the bias motive is religion and religious
affiliation, and the bias indicators are:
1. Pattern of previous incidents – incidents involving damage to church property and religious insignia have
been previously registered as well.
Status of the case: Unknown.
Response of the local authorities: To the request submitted to MoI in relation to this incident, asking
whether there are indicators that would verify hate crime, we got an answer identical to the one in MoI’s
newsletter, i.e. that they had gone to the scene and that they were taking measures to fully solve the case.
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.
