Skopje, 14 June 2024 (MIA) - The Skopje-based Criminal Court on Friday ordered suspended prison sentences for seven people in connection with the attack on M-NAV staff on January 4, for the criminal offence - preventing an official in performance of duty.  

The Public Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of North Macedonia said Friday that six people were sentenced to an alternative measure - suspended sentence, i.e. 6-month imprisonment, the serving of which will be considered fulfilled if the defendants don't break the law during a period of one year and six months, while one person got a suspended sentence with supervision.

"For one defendant, who has taken more serious actions to obstruct the official and has been previously convicted of an offence against public safety, an alternative measure was ordered - suspended prison sentence with supervision, i.e. a prison sentence of two years, which will not be carried out if the defendant does not commit a new criminal offense during a period of five years," reads the press release.  

According to the Public Prosecutor's Office, evidence collected during the investigation, including verbal statements by M-NAV employees as witnesses to the event, as well as the injured official, and reports on air traffic safety at the time of the incident from the Civil Aviation Agency and the international agency Eurocontrol, show that at the time of the incident air traffic security has not been threatened, and therefore the criminal offence - threatening air traffic security, for which the investigation was initially opened, no longer exists. 

Video evidence and statements collected during the footage, adds the press release, show that elements exist only for the criminal offence - preventing an official in performance of duty. Therefore, the competent public prosecutor has requested and was approved by the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office Skopje to change the legal qualification under which the previous proceedings were conducted.   

The proceedings have been stopped for the eighth suspect under the initial investigation, as he had not participated in the actions of preventing an official in performing duty.

Photo: MIA archive