On Friday and over the weekend, there were numerous reactions and events over the case of 20-year-old Vasil Jovanov, the person detained on suspicion that on Wednesday, he had been behind the wheel in the traffic accident in which 22-year-old pedestrian Frosina Kulakova was killed.
During Kulakova’s funeral in Negotino, the city of her birth, her father, Todor Kulakov, criticised “impunity”, adding it was children that faced consequences of that.
Frosina’s sister, Rosica Kulakova, said the Judge that had made the decision to send Jovanov to a house of correction, Daniela Aleksovska-Stojanovska, and the suspect’s father, should be imprisoned.
“Society must not be held hostage by people without moral foundations”, Rosica Kulakova stated, adding that instead of publicly extending condolences, the two had deleted profiles on social media.
Friday also saw a protest at the part of Partizanska Boulevard in Centar Municipality where the accident had taken place two days prior. Citizens called for swift and effective justice, saying the system had failed in the Jovanov-Kulakova case.
The same day, PM Hristijan Mickoski said he personally supported the protests. He expects the Safe System to soon be put into use. His party, VMRO-DPMNE, too, said the longest prison sentence should be given in order to send a message that playing games with the law was not allowed.
SDSM, on its part, called on the Government and Interior Ministry to take measures and improve traffic safety.
Furthermore, Friday saw the Criminal Court voice a stand on the Jovanov case, following the accusations leveled at it over its decision to send the person, who had been in detention in a drugs case, to a house of correction, treating him as a younger adult. The institution extended condolences over Kulakova’s death, but added that the traffic accident shouldn’t be associated with the house of correction decision.
“Was anybody in the judicial system able to assume that the defendant, seven months after the verdict aiming to institutionalize him, could commit another crime and it was therefore required for him to be held in detention? Laws in our country and international conventions on human rights don’t allow that”, the Court stated.
According to the institution, previously, there had been neither criminal charges nor convictions nor misdemeanour processes related to traffic with regards to Jovanov. In 2021, he received only a court reprimand for violation of public order and peace.
Nonetheless, on 4 November 2022, Jovanov caused another crime related to traffic that didn’t reach a process before the Criminal Court. On 4 November 2022, one hour after midnight, on Ruzveltova Street in Skopje, with his Peugeot, he hit another car that was not in motion and injured the travelling companion.
The Interior Ministry filed a criminal charge three months later, on 1 February 2023. However, the Prosecutor’s Office stopped that procedure in a deal with the damaged party that, it said, had suffered lighter injuries. There was no criminal prosecution, but Jovanov agreed to pay a fine of 18,000 denars. Also, the Interior Ministry initiated misdemeanour proceedings for driving without a licence.
VMRO-DPMNE said it was shocked by the Criminal Court’s insistence on justifying its decision on Jovanov.
“Instead of taking responsibility for the obvious oversight, it has continued to defend its stand, even though, after that, that same perpetrator, caused a tragedy in which an innocent life was claimed”, the party noted.
VMRO-DPMNE also stated that the Judge behind the “scandalous” decision, Aleksovska-Stojanovska, had in the past seven years been the main enforcer when it came to the “politically staged processes” of SDSM against VMRO-DPMNE.
However, Venko Filipce’s party said VMRO-DPMNE was lying.
“She became a Judge on 8 February 2012, during the peak season of the rule of the VMRO-DPMNE regime”, SDSM stated.
On Saturday, after the BureVesnik portal had published photos of Jovanov holding a cell phone while in detention, the Administration for Execution of Sanctions took action.
“His mobile phone was taken away. An investigation was immediately launched to determine which employees allowed him and other persons in detention to get phones”, the Administration’s head, Aleksandar Pandov, said.
The Skopje1 portal said on Sunday it had learned that Jovanov had received the phone from another detainee, who was from Gevgelija.
“The phone was transferred from one cell to another in a closed box of cookies. The service cost 250 euros, while since Jovanov didn’t have the money on him inside, the funds were paid to a close relative of the Gevgelija man by a person close to Jovanov”, the portal said, citing sources from the prison.
According to Skopje1, the detainee asked a prison officer to give the box to the cell where Jovanov was because he was asking for cookies. The officer didn’t suspect anything and took the box from that cell to Jovanov’s. That was afterwards confirmed by the authorities.
Saturday also saw Jovanov put in solitary confinement. Sunday, former Defence Minister Radmila Sekerinska denied that she had pulled strings in order for Jovanov not to be in detention during the investigation into the drugs case.