Roma Foundation for Europe Backs Call for Attempted Murder Charges over Stabbing of Roma Boy in Skopje

Brussels, 8 July 2026 – The Roma Foundation for Europe supports he European Roma Rights Centre’s (ERRC) demand that authorities in North Macedonia reclassify the attack on a 14-year-old Roma boy in Skopje as attempted murder, not the lesser charge of “violence against a child” currently on file.

The case was first reported by Roma News in North Macedonia. On 22 June 2026, the boy, from the Madžari neighbourhood, was lured by telephone to a park in Čento, Gazi Baba municipality, where three adult men attacked him. One struck him on the head with a firearm, a second beat him across the body, and a third stabbed him seven times in the back with a knife. He was found unconscious by a passer-by and underwent urgent surgery. Police have since detained three suspects and opened a criminal complaint under Article 201a of the Criminal Code, the child-specific offence of “violence against a child”.

The Roma Foundation for Europe agrees with the ERRC’s assessment that the facts as reported—three coordinated attackers, the use of a firearm and a knife, seven targeted stab wounds and a phone call used to lure the victim—meet the threshold for attempted murder under Article 123 read with Article 19 of the Criminal Code, with aggravating circumstances under Article 123(2). The Roma Foundation for Europe further agrees that the current charge does not reflect the gravity or premeditation of the attack.

We further support the ERRC’s demands that authorities:

• issue a public statement clarifying the legal qualification of the case;
• provide the boy’s family with formal written communication on the charges and the timeline of proceedings;
• put in place child-specific protective measures under the Law on Justice for Children, including psychosocial support, which the family says has not been offered; and
• examine whether the attack was motivated by the victim’s ethnicity.

North Macedonian law requires courts to consider whether a crime was motivated by a victim’s race or ethnicity. Failing to examine that question here would leave North Macedonia short of its obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights and UN conventions on racial discrimination and children’s rights.

This is a test of whether a Roma child receives the same protection under the law as any other child in North Macedonia. The boy’s mother has said in a statement to the news outlet Sloboden Pechat that she and her son remain afraid in their own home, and that the prosecution has not yet contacted her directly. The Roma Foundation for Europe calls on the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office to correct the charge, keep the family informed, and ensure the boy and his mother receive the protection and support they are owed.