Bojkovski, from the village of Dragomance near Kumanovo, who is charged with murdering women in the Staro Nagoričane area, told the Basic Court in Kumanovo yesterday that he committed three of the four murders he is accused of. According to the indictment, he killed four women and tried to kill two more, and the murders he admitted took place between January 2025 and February 2026, in several villages in the municipality.

The confession, however, was anything but straightforward. Bojkovski mostly answered with "yes" and "no", and to prosecutor Ljubomir Lape's questions he gave confused answers about which women he had killed and which he had not. At first he claimed he had not killed the woman from the village of Klečovce, and later said the same about another of the victims. He also changed his motive - he now says he did it for money. He also said he regrets everything he did.

Prosecutor Lape believes the defendant is using this line of defence to improve his position. "He confessed to the crimes before the public prosecutor, and for every one of them there is other material evidence backing the indictment. How he defends himself is his right," Lape said.

The expert witness: calculating, not ill. Forensic psychiatrist Prof. Dr. Stojan Bajraktarov found no mental illness in Bojkovski and no grounds for psychiatric treatment, concluding that he should be sent to a penal institution. His intellectual abilities, according to the report, sit on the border between mild intellectual disability and normal capacity, and his short answers come from a limited vocabulary, not from failing to understand the language. That is why the court rejected the defence's request for a speech therapist or an interpreter.

As an example, the expert said the defendant was able to describe in detail how he ran from one house when a white car pulled up, because he assumed it was the woman's son. According to the assessment, this shows he could recognise danger, react and escape - and that he was calculating when he committed the crimes.

Since, according to the indictment, he intentionally took several lives, Bojkovski faces at least ten years in prison or a life sentence. Closing arguments are scheduled for October 6. The families of the murdered women are waiting for a verdict, and the prosecution's message is that the evidence does not depend on what the defendant chooses to say in the courtroom.