Macedonian Mother Sues State Over Son's Death

Neskovski’s mother, Lenka Neskovska appeared before a court in Skopje on Friday as part of investigations into 33-year-old policeman Igor Spasov, who has been detained in connection with her son's death on June 6.

“She told the court that she will be seeking damages from the state,” the Neskoski family's lawyer, Saso Dukovski, said.

The investigation so far has covered two dozen witnesses.

Martiin Neskovski died shortly after midnight on June 6 after being brutally beaten in the central square of Skopje at celebrations held to mark the election victory of Nikola Gruevski's VMRO-DPMNE party the previous day.

The motive for the attack remains unknown.

Police have suspended Spasov, who at the time was as member of the special Tigers police unit, tasked with securing the square for the winning party's celebrations.

Last week, courts prolonged Spasov's detention for another 30 days.

“The authorities killed my son! They killed him! The kid was asking for help and they kept his body for two days to cover up the case,” the mother shouted to TV cameras on the day she found out that her son was dead. [she only found her son was dead two days later?]

Several thousand young people poured onto the streets of Skopje last month after news of the fatal beating spread through the social netwrking sites Tweeter and Facebook. The two-day silence of the police about the case fuelled suspicions of a cover-up.

As part of their continuing actiions, protesters last week presented a debate on the affair at the EXIT music festival in neighbouring Serbia's northern province of Vojvodina.

“Our struggle for justice and ending police brutality goes on! We will be on the streets until they take full responsibility,” flyers distributed at EXIT said.

The protesters demand a full investigation into the case and are seeking answers from police minister Gordana Jankulovska.

Protestors have also complained that the pro-government media in Macedonia have ignored both the case and the subsequent protests.

They say the government has tried to portray them as puppets of the opposition Social Democrats in order to discredit their cause.