What happened: The Cybercrime and Digital Forensics Departments at the Ministry of Interior, working
in coordination with the Primary Public Prosecutor’s Office – Skopje undertook measures and activities
on the grounds of a post shared on the social network Facebook by I.J. (49) from Skopje, which caused
endangering the safety of the MPs from the Assembly of the Republic North Macedonia and spreading
racial and xenophobic material via information system, i.e. on the grounds of reasonable suspicion for
having committed the criminal offence of “Endangering the Safety” under Article 144 and “Spreading Racial
and Xenophobic Material via an Information System” under Article 394-d from the Criminal Code of RNM.
Date, place and time of incident: Precisely undetermined date and time, on the social network Facebook,
MOI pressed charges on 18.01.2019.
Source of information: MOI’s daily newsletter.
Victim(s) involved: Undetermined.
Type of crime(s): Endangering the Safety (Article 144, paragraph 4, CC of RNM), Spreading Racial and
Xenophobic Material via an Information System (Article 394-d, CC of RNM).
Perpetrator(s): One identified perpetrator (I.Ј., 49).
Brief description of the event with bias indicators: In this incident the bias motive is political affiliation,
with the bias indicators being:
1. Pattern of previous incidents – inciting and spreading ethnic hatred and inciting violence on
social networks is becoming a more common method for committing hate crimes.
Status of the case: Criminal charges pressed. The crime was qualified as a hate crime.
Response of the local authorities: Criminal charges pressed for the cited criminal offence (Article 144
Endangering the Safety and Article 394-d Spreading Racial and Xenophobic Material via an Information
System from CC of RNM).
Impact on the victims and the community: These types of incidents call into question the general safety
and the political stability of the country.
