What happened: Several perpetrators assaulted a high school graduate and his friend, because they
placed a national fl ag in the hall of the hotel Kontinental, where the student celebrated his graduation.
After the celebration, the father of the graduate came to drive his son home. On the road, their vehicle was fi rst followed by a Mercedes vehicle. Short after, they were forcibly stopped by an Audi vehicle.
From the Audi, several people came out with wooden bats and threatening to use a fi rearm, they
damaged the vehicle. During the attack, three of the victims gained minor injuries from shattered glass.
Date, time and location of the incident: May 25th, 22:30 hrs, Skopje.
Source of information: The electronic media mkd-news.
Victim(s) involved: Four people in total – two of them attacked in hotel Kontinental, and another two
when were driving one of the victim’s car.
Type of the crime(s): Violence (Art.386 CCRM), Bodily harm (Art.130 CCRM), Damaging of other’s
property (Art. 243 CCRM).
Perpetrator(s): Unknown group of young people.
Brief description of incident with bias indicators: In this incident, the bias motive is the ethnic origin,
citizenship or language, and the bias indicators are:
1. Presumed difference in ethnic background – the incident occurred in an area populated by people
with mixed ethnic composition;
2. Presumed difference in ethnic background – the victims ware promoting their nationality (placing a
fl ag) at the time of the incident;
3. Nature of violence – the incident was carried out in public;
4. Lack of other motives.
Status of the case: Misdemeanor and criminal charges passed.
Response of local authorities: Answering upon a Request for information of public character, the
Ministry of Interior Affairs (MOI) stated that misdemeanor charges ware passed against two people
for the assault in front of the hotel, and criminal complaints are submitted against three people for
the act of Violence for the latter incident.
Impact on the victim(s) and the community: This incident puts into question the ethnic coexistence
between the two major communities in the country.
