Macedonia Braces For New Anti-Police Protest

The site where Neskovski is believed to have been killed | Photo by: Robert Atanasovski

“We wish to point out that our demands for police reform still have not been met,” Neskovski’s brother, Aleksandar told Balkan Insight.

“There are still no answers from the authorities about what happened on the night of my brother’s death and who is responsible,” Aleksandar added.

He and other young protestors plan to rally on Thursday at their previous meeting place in front of the memorial house to Mother Teresa in Skopje. After that they plan to move the rally to the front of the Macedonian Government building.

Martin Neskovski died shortly after midnight on June 6 after being set on by a policeman in Skopje's main square.

He had been attending the celebrations held to mark the victory of Nikola Gruevski's VMRO-DPMNE party in the general election the previous day.

Eywitnesses claimed a policeman in uniform started beating him for no apparent reason.
As news of the assault spread through the media, young people used the social networking sites Facebook and Twitter to organize rallies against what they said was unchecked police brutality.

For nearly two days the police denied involvement in the incident. But on June 8 the police changed their story, confirming the man’s death and identity and claiming they had a suspect in custody.

The police said that the suspect, Igor Spasov, then a member of a police special unit known as the Tigers, had turned himself in. His motives for the alleged attack remain unclear.

Spasov was removed from police duty and is in custody while his trial is in progress.

His arrest did not stop the protests that had begun in Skopje, where many locals say they want systemic reforms to the way that law enforcement bodies behave.

Rallies in Skopje continued throughout June and early July at which protestors organized concerts and plays to voice their message.

The protesters also drew up petitions demanding a revision of the law on the police to ensure stricter civil oversight of police work and stricter rules for hiring new police officers.

The authorities ignored their demands, saying only that the man suspected of the murder was already in custody.

An unnamed source from Skopje's court last week told Alfa TV that Spasov had allegedly admitted hitting Neskovski. But he also insisted that Neskovski had died as a result of tripping over a wire and falling onto the pavement, hitting his head.

Aleksandar Neskovski told Balkan Insight that he was not satisfied by the court's investigation so far.

He seeks the inclusion of more eyewitnesses to the event and says he wishes to see video footage from the square, which he hopes will disclose more accurately what happened the night that his brother died.