Ethnic Discord, Covert Tapes Animate North Macedonia Murder Trial

This prompted the prosecution to stick mainly to the old forensic evidence and testimonies from the first trial. But unlike the first trial, which ended with life imprisonment sentences for all six defendants, this time the prosecution demanded life in prison only for three of the defendants who are believed to be the actual perpetrators of the murder - Alil Demiri, Afrim Ismailovic (who is being tried in absentia) and Agim Ismailovic.

The prosecution this time demanded lower jail sentences for, Haki Aziri and Fejzi Aziri who are accused for helping the murderers, and dropped all charges for the sixth defendant, Sami Ljuta, due to lack of evidence.

During the closing arguments on January 21, prosecutor Fatime Fetai argued that the defendants were not terrorists but that they have nevertheless committed a terrorist act. Provoking an ethnic conflict and destabilisation of the ethnically mixed country has been the most probable motive, Fetai suggested. For that reason, the victims were deliberately picked to be ethnic Macedonians.

"This event could have easily provoked a repeated conflict with innocent victims, [and is] an event that which increased the mistrust and hatred between the Macedonian and Albanian ethnic communities," the prosecutor pointed out.

"This act deserves nothing less than life in prison sentence," she urged during her closing argument.

Quite the contrary, said defence lawyer Naser Raufi who gave his closing argument on February 3, insisted that the retrial has shown the many flaws in the evidence, had shown credible suspicions that the police had planted not only a protected witness but also false forensic evidence as well.

He demanded full acquittal of all six defendants, insisting once more that their...