Macedonians Protest Over Delays in Neskovski Probe

The rally in Skopje marked a continuation of the protests held in June and July against what some see as a culture of police brutality in Macedonia, which they also blame for the death of 22-year-old Neskovski.

Shouting “We want an investigation of the police,” protesters complained that the three-month timeframe for conducting an investigation by the courts had already been breached.

“We're getting confusing information about the investigation. We want to speed up justice with our protest,” Voislav Stojanovski, one of the organizers, said.

The protest started at the same site as the earlier protests, in front of the memorial house to Mother Teresa. Later they went to the parliament building where they held a minute's  silence in Neskovski’s memory. The rally continued in front of the State Prosecutor’s office and before the Skopje district court.

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 the investigation of the case 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 have ignored their demands, saying only that the man suspected of the murder was already in custody.