What happened: Near the “Gorce Petrov” school, a 15-year-old minor who was celebrating his birthday
with his friends was intercepted by three men, one of whom had a baseball bat. The three men went
towards the minor and his companions and physically attacked him: one of the three grabbed him by
the neck and pushed him into the bushes, after which he tried to hit him with his fi st, but the victim
managed to escape and reported the event by telephone. When he headed towards the “Gjorche
Petrov” police station, one of the attackers took the bat and tried to hit the victims in the head, but
failed to do so.
Date, time and location of the incident: 5 March, around 21:00, near “Gjorche Petrov” Primary School
in Skopje.
Source of information: Sitel Television program.
Victim(s) involved: One minor.
Type of the crime(s): Violence (Article 386, CC), Threatening with a dangerous tool during a fi ght or a
quarrel (Article 133, CC).
Perpetrator(s): A group of three unknown perpetrators.
Brief description of the incident with bias indicators: In this incident, the bias motive is ethnicity,
nationality or language and the bias indicators are:
1. Assumed difference in ethnicity – the incident took place in an area inhabited by people of a different
ethnicity;
2. Nature of the violence – it was a public incident.
Status of the case: Filed criminal charges.
Response of Local Authorities: In MOI’s response to the Committee’s request for public information
regarding this incident, it is stated that SIA Skopje submitted the criminal charges to the Public
Prosecutor’s Offi ce – Skopje.
Impact on the victim(s) and the community: This incident calls into question the ethnic coexistence
between the two largest communities in the country.
