The Criminal Court in Skopje on Tuesday found the defendants Halil Demiri, Afrim Ismailovikj and Agim Ismailovikj guilty of terrorism and sentenced them to life imprisonment.
The defendant Fejzi Aziri was found guilty on two counts of aiding a perpetrator when committing a crime and sentenced to 15 years in prison, while the defendant Haki Aziri was found guilty on two counts of aiding a perpetrator when committing a crime and sentenced to 9 years in prison.
The court acquitted the sixth defendant Sami Ljuta due to lack of evidence for terrorism charges.
The six defendants were tried in the ‘Monster’ case for committing the murders of four teenagers and a fisherman at the Smilkovci Lake near Skopje in April 12, 2012.
The judges Ognen Stavrev and Osman Shabani preside over the case, including three jurors and the prosecutors are Fatime Fetai and Gavril Bubevski.
Prosecutor Fatime Fetai asked the court to order their detention.
Defendant Fejzi Aziri speaking before the court invited the chief state public prosecutor Ljubomir Joveski and the chief prosecutor at the Prosecutor’s Office for organized crime Vilma Ruskoska to visit him in the “Shuto Orizari” prison and to present them evidence of the masterminds of the murder, evidence about the perpetrators, organizers of the murder, as well as helpers in this case.
Six men were sentenced to a life in prison in a previous trial over the killings of four teenage boys – Kire Trichkovski, Filip Slavkovski, Cvetancho Ackovski, Aleksandar Nakjevski, and fisherman Borche Stefanovski.
The Supreme Court in late 2017 rescinded the verdicts and four defendants were released from detention. After the rescinding of the verdicts, the Monster case was taken over by the now-defunct Special Public Prosecution and a retrial was ordered.
