The Supreme Court Has Also Said No to Stojanče Jovanovski: His 12-Year Sentence for the Violence Against His Wife Ivana Stands

Stojanče Jovanovski has used up his extraordinary legal remedy too. At a session on 21 October the Supreme Court rejected as unfounded the request for extraordinary review of the final verdict, so the combined 12-year prison sentence stands.

Jovanovski has a final conviction for bodily injury, endangering safety, and inciting and assisting suicide. The case concerns the violence he inflicted on his wife Ivana. She and their six-year-old daughter lost their lives on 2 March this year in the Skopje neighbourhood of Taftalidže.

The Basic Criminal Court delivered its verdict on 7 May, the Court of Appeal upheld it on 18 June, and the Supreme Court ruled on 21 October. All three decisions came in less than eight months after 2 March. The court's statement doesn't name the convicted man, but the case numbers and dates match the Jovanovski case. The reasons for the rejection were not given, and the verdict is due to be published on the court's website.

The courts have said who is guilty and of what. They haven't said whether anyone could have stopped the violence before 2 March. That question is for the institutions that exist precisely for women in such a position, and it remains open.