12 years in prison. That is the maximum sentence the Basic Criminal Court in Skopje could hand down. Stojance Jovanovski, who on 2 March 2026, after a long beating and verbal abuse, drove his wife Ivana Stojanoska to jump from a balcony in Karpos 4 together with their six-year-old daughter Katja, received it. Ivana and Katja did not survive.

Judge Ivica Stefanovski found Jovanovski guilty on all three counts: bodily injury as a continuing act of domestic violence (5 years), endangerment of safety (3 years), and incitement and assistance to suicide (5 years). The total - 12 years. The legal maximum.

Prosecutor Adela Bojcevic opened a dilemma that parliament needs to resolve: should the maximum penalty for bodily injury as a result of domestic violence and for incitement to suicide be equal? When male violence that drives a woman and child to death carries five years - the same as injury without a fatal outcome - that is a deficiency of a legal system that does not understand the weight of domestic violence.

The details of the verdict are painful. Jovanovski hit Ivana repeatedly, choked her, insulted her. He threatened her: „I'll throw you out of the apartment, I'll kill you, I'll take Katja from you." He did this in front of six-year-old Katja. He did it in the vehicle of Martin Sazdov, who drove them to several locations in Skopje before they reached the apartment.

Stojance came to the sentencing alone - no family, no friends, no support. We saw him in the courtroom - a calm face. Even a smile, as if relieved at the conclusion. Ivana's family lost a daughter and a granddaughter; he will spend 12 years in prison. There is no balance.

For the Balkans this is not an isolated case. Macedonia is dealing with domestic violence that goes unreported, unresolved, unpunished until it becomes a media sensation. Veles, Kocani, Staro Nagoricane - the last months have shown more of these stories. Institutions that should protect women only react after the triage, when it is already too late. The question the court does not answer: how much time passed before 2 March, in which Ivana may have asked for help - and did not get it?

The verdict is a beginning, not an end. Women in the Balkans have to demand more than 12 years for their lives - starting from the assumption that the legal maximum is too small, and ending with the parties that have the power to change it, but don't want to.