What happened: The Sector for Internal Affairs Strumica, in coordination with the Sector for Computer
Crime and Digital Forensics under the Ministry of Interior, submitted criminal charges against I.S. (41) from
Strumica to the competent public prosecution, for reasonable suspicion that he had committed the crime
of “Endangering the safety” and “Spreading racist and xenophobic materials through a computer system”.
On 19.10.2018, at 09:20 h he posted racist and xenophobic content related to the persons S.A. and I.S. on
the social network Twitter and was summoned for an interview in SIA Strumica, where he explained that the
Twitter profile where the post was published is his and that he was the author of the post
Date, time and location of the incident: On Twitter social network on 19.10.2018, at 09:20 h.
Source of information: MoI’s daily newsletter.
Victim(s) involved: Apart from material damage, there were no victims in this incident.
Type of crime(s): Spreading racist and xenophobic materials through a computer system (Article 394-г
ст. 1, CC).
Perpetrator(s): I.S. (42) from Strumica
Brief description of the event with bias indicators: In this incident the bias motive is political affiliation
or political convictions, and the bias indicators are:
1. Pattern of previous incidents – incidents of committing these crimes via social networks had previously
been registered as well.
Status of the case: criminal charges pressed KU no. 33.4-500 from 26.10.2018
Response of the local authorities: To the request submitted to MoI in relation to this incident, asking
whether there are indicators verifying hate crime in this case, we got a response in January 2019, stating that
in regard to this case, they submitted criminal charges to KU no. 33.4-500, from 26.10.2018 to the competent
PPO for further action.
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.
