SkopjeDiem Macedonia in English
The Court of Appeals has altered the sentence in the drugs case against Vasil Jovanov, that is, the correctional institution measure has been replaced with a prison sentence of three years and 10 months.
The Court made that decision at a session held behind closed doors on 5 February.
The 20-year-old Jovanov is currently in detention on suspicion that on 29 January, he was behind the wheel in the traffic accident in which 22-year-old pedestrian Frosina Kulakova was killed.
Over that case, his parents held a press-conference on Friday, extending condolences to Kulakova’s family. They also said they hadn’t allowed him to drive the car, adding that he’d stolen the vehicle.
According to them, Jovanov, who doesn’t have a driving licence, hadn’t consumed alcohol for a longer period of time prior the night of the accident, when he did so because a friend of his was opening a coffee place. They described themselves as a normal family and denied any connection with Daniela Aleksovska-Stojanovska, the Judge who’d initially abolished the detention measure and decided to send Jovanov to a correctional facility in the drugs case.
In response, Frosina’s father, Todor Kulakov, said their condolences hadn’t been genuine because they had come nine days after his daughter’s death.
“The anti-system produces such parents, who, in turn, create a killer”, he stated, adding that they had organized the illegal process for Jovanov to receive the mobile phone while in dentition in order to communicate about how to “cover up the murder” committed by their son, just like they had covered up the previous cases with Aleksovska-Stojanovska.
“This is just an activity by the killer’s parents to manipulate the public and win sympathies”, he said on social media on Saturday.
Saturday also saw a protest march held in Negotino, Kulakova’s city of birth. The march was led by her friends, who called for safer streets and punishment for irresponsible drivers.
Relatives of other traffic victims who, as they said, were not satisfied with slow justice or outcome of trials were part of the protest, too. Protesters were holding banners reading “Alcohol and a wheel don’t go hand in hand” and “We don’t get killed in accidents, we die of corruption”.
