The Basic Public Prosecutor's Office in Skopje, upon receiving a report, opened a case concerning the publication of a video on the social media platform Twitter entitled "Only Nuclear Power for Us", posted by a profile using the username @skopskipunisher ("Frank Castle").
On 30 January 2020, the Public Prosecutor issued an Order to the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of North Macedonia, specifically to the Department for Computer Crime and Digital Forensics (SKKDF), instructing it to undertake investigative measures to determine the origin of the video, identify the social media platform on which it was first published, and establish the identity of the user who posted it.
On the same date, the Public Prosecutor also issued an Order to the Ministry of Interior – SVR Skopje, Police Station Centar, requesting information regarding the persons involved in the incident, including when they entered the territory of the Republic of North Macedonia, whether they remained in the country, and any additional information available concerning those individuals.
Furthermore, on 30 January 2020, the Public Prosecutor submitted a Request for the Submission of Information to the Ministry of Interior, seeking video recordings from the external security cameras installed on the Ministry's building.
In response to the Order, the Ministry of Interior – SVR Skopje, Public Security Bureau, Department for Computer Crime and Digital Forensics, submitted a Notification dated 31 January 2020.
Referring to the Criminal Procedure Code and the Law on International Cooperation in Criminal Matters, the Public Prosecutor also submitted a request to Facebook on 31 January 2020, seeking complete account information relating to the Instagram profile, from which the disputed video had originally been posted. The requested information was to include the exact date, time, and time zone of the publication, due to the existence of reasonable grounds to suspect that the criminal offence of Dissemination of racist and xenophobic material through a computer system, under Article 394-g of the Criminal Code, had been committed.
On 26 March 2020, the Ministry of Interior, through the Public Security Bureau and the Department for Computer Crime and Digital Forensics, submitted a Notification enclosing email correspondence received from Facebook through the official email address of the Department. The correspondence concerned the preservation of electronic data and the procedure for obtaining such data.
According to the Notification, acting upon the Public Prosecutor's request, the Department had requested Instagram to preserve the data relating to the above-mentioned Instagram profile. The request was registered as Case No. 4466745, and, pursuant to Instagram's email of 30 January 2020, reasonable steps had been taken to preserve the requested account data. Instagram further noted that the preserved data would remain available for 90 days from the date of preservation.
In view of the foregoing, the Public Prosecutor submitted a Request for International Legal Assistance on 27 January 2020, relying on Article 39 of the Criminal Procedure Code, Articles 15 and 25 of the Law on International Co-operation in Criminal Matters, and Article 29 and 32 of the Convention on Cybercrime (Budapest Convention). The request sought the disclosure of information relating to the Instagram profile from which the disputed video had first been shared, noting that the relevant data had already been preserved under Case No. 4466745 and that the preservation order would expire on 28 June 2020.
After obtaining the requested information, the Public Prosecutor submitted a Motion for the Issuance of a Penal Order on 27 January 2021, alleging that:
On 28 January 2020, at approximately 1h30 PM, the defendant, through a computer system, disseminated racist and xenophobic material to the public by posting a video from his Instagram profile. The material promoted hatred against a group of persons based on race, skin colour, and nationality. Specifically, using the Instagram account "enko_97777", the defendant uploaded a video that he had recorded earlier that day with his mobile phone while standing near the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Kej Dimitar Vlahov Street in Skopje. The video depicted a group of foreign nationals, citizens of the Republic of Korea, to whom the defendant addressed offensive and xenophobic remarks associating them with the coronavirus and told them inappropriately to leave the area. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the video was subsequently shared and commented upon by other users of the social network, thereby inciting hatred against persons on the grounds of their race and nationality.
Acting upon the Motion for the Issuance of a Penal Order, the Basic Criminal Court, by Judgment on the Issuance of a Penal Order dated 9 February 2021, which became final on 9 March 2021, found the defendant guilty of the criminal offence of dissemination of racist and xenophobic material through a computer system under Article 394-g(1) of the Criminal Code. The court imposed a sentence of three months' imprisonment, suspended on condition that the defendant does not commit another criminal offence within one year from the date the judgment became final.