Ohrid retrial begins over beating of Bulgarian association secretary
Nearly four years after the secretary of the "Tsar Boris III" association was beaten in Ohrid, North Macedonia, the case is being retried after an appeals court overturned the first verdict.
Symbolic image · Photo: Jocelyn Erskine-Kellie / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
The trial over the beating of an ethnic Bulgarian activist in the North Macedonian town of Ohrid is starting over. The appeals court in Bitola ordered a retrial, and both sides were due back before the Basic Court in Ohrid on Thursday, Bulgarian public broadcaster BNT reported. The news site Frognews, citing the BTA news agency, said both the prosecution and the defense of the two defendants had appealed.
The attack took place on the evening of Jan. 19, 2023, outside a bar in Ohrid. The victim, Hristijan P., was secretary of the "Tsar Boris III" association, which has since been struck from North Macedonia's register. He suffered a broken jaw, cracked ribs, two cracked vertebrae and lost three teeth. The Bulgarian government arranged his transfer to Sofia, where he was treated at the Military Medical Academy. Security camera footage shown in court reportedly shows two men punching and kicking him, according to Frognews.
In March 2025, the Ohrid court sentenced the two defendants, men from Ohrid and Bitola, to eight months in prison each for causing grievous bodily harm. Both denied wrongdoing. The court found that a hate motive had not been proven. Initially only one of the men was charged; the second was added later. The first trial dragged on for nearly two years amid repeated postponements. Evidence will now be heard again, and the defendants remain presumed innocent.