site.btaOhrid Court Orders Effective Eight-Month Prison Sentence for Perpetrators of Beating of Hristian Pendikov, "Hate" Motive Found Unproven

Eight months of effective imprisonment each for inflicting grievous bodily harm were handed down by the Primary Court in Ohrid to the two accused for the beating of Hristian Pendikov - Ilija Spaseski and Borce Angelov, but the court found the motive "out of hatred" unproven, Pendikov's lawyer Stefan Kamishevski told BTA after а hearing in the case on March 5.

The verdict was handed down a little more than two years after the first hearing in the case of the beating, which took place in the evening hours of January 19, 2023 in front of a restaurant in Ohrid. 

The secretary of the King Boris III cultural club, which was later officially deleted from the registers in North Macedonia, was attacked and beaten, and with two cracked vertebrae, a broken jaw, cracked ribs and three broken teeth, two of which have now been extracted, was brought to the Military Medical Academy in Sofia for treatment. 

According to Pendikov's testimony following the incident in Ohrid, which was taken immediately after the beating and which was read out in the courtroom at one of the first hearings in the case, Spaseski entered the restaurant where Pendikov was and hit him on the head saying, "Aren't you ashamed to refer to yourself as Bulgarian?". After Pendikov left the restaurant, Spaseski, together with two other persons, attacked him. Pendikov testified to the police that he heard a woman's voice telling them to leave him alone because she was going to call the police, and Spaseski replied, "You should not call the police for a Bulgarian, let no one remain!" and the beating continued.

Security camera footage presented in court at one of the hearings shows Pendikov being beaten and kicked by two men. Only Ilija Spaseski from Ohrid was initially charged for the act, and later Borce Angelov from Bitola. Both pleaded not guilty.

Witnesses for both the prosecution and the defence were questioned during the trial, and the hearings were repeatedly adjourned.

The detailed reasons for the verdict handed down by Judge Bojan Martinovski of the Ohrid court will become clear when it is presented in writing to both sides in the case, after which each of them - the prosecution and the defence - have the right to appeal against it within 14 days.