What happened: One 17 year old person, together with his friend, was physically attacked by about
20 unknown persons in bus no. 7 of JSP Skopje. At the bus stop on “3-ta Makedonska Brigada” Blvd
in Skopje near the “Maria Curie Sklodowska” secondary school, about 20 unknown persons aged between 14 and 18 got on the bus. Several of them started dragging the juvenile and once they
pushed him outside, they physically attacked him, hitting him and kicking him all over the body. Then
they turned to his friend and started slapping him on the face and hitting him on the back of his
head, but he managed to escape. Measures are being taken to fully solve this case.
Date, time and location of the incident: 22 March, 14:00, JSP no.7
Source of information: MoI daily bulletin.
Victim(s) involved: Two juveniles.
Type of crime(s): Violence (Article 386, CC), Bodily injury (Article 130, CC)
Perpetrator(s): A group of about 20 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. Assumed difference in ethnicity – the incident took place on JSP bus no. 7 which transits through
areas populated by people of different ethnicities; the bus stop where the perpetrators got on board
is located in front of a school attended by students of different ethnicities;
2. Pattern of previous incidents – this incident is another in a growing trend of fights in JSP buses.
Status of the case: Unknown
Response of the local authorities: The MOI’s response to the MHC request for public information
regarding this incident, stated that in this event, one person (17) was physically attacked by 3-4
unknown people. Following the measures and activities undertaken by the SIA Skopje to the Public
Prosecutor’s Office Skopje, criminal charges (KU.br.2993 / 17) were filed against 3 persons on grounds
of suspicion of committing a criminal act “Violence” in accordance with Article 386 of the Criminal
Law.
Impact on the victim(s) and the community: This incident calls into question the ethnic co-existence
of the two major ethnic communities in the country.
