Prosecutor Seeks Life Term for Trajche Bojkovski

On October 6, 2026, the criminal trial against Trajche Bojkovski from the village of Dragomance resumed at the Basic Court in Kumanovo with closing statements from both the prosecution and the defence.

The public prosecutor, Ljubomir Lape, urged the court to find Bojkovski guilty of four murders and two attempted murders of women across several villages in the Staro Nagorichane municipality and to impose the maximum penalty provided by law — life imprisonment.

Prosecutor describes risk of reoffending and lack of mitigating factors

Explaining the request, Lape told the court that psychiatric evaluations show the accused cannot be resocialized and represents a high danger of committing crimes again. He argued that the scale of harm to the victims and the community justifies the severest sanction.

"It is for several reasons, primarily because for this type of perpetrators of criminal acts, as is apparent from the psychiatric expert report, it follows that there is no possibility for resocialization, that there is a high degree of danger of repeating the criminal acts. Simply put, I do not see how he could be reintegrated into society. And for those reasons I believe that the sentence itself could satisfy the principles of criminal law, especially regarding the harm and consequences of the criminal acts; they are irreparable. All circumstances are to the detriment of the accused because I consider all of them aggravating; I tried to find mitigating circumstances, the only one would be if he had given a sincere confession and remorse, but you were witnesses that such a thing was absent, on the other hand the psychiatrists said when he states that he is sorry that is only manipulation," Lape said after the hearing.

Prosecutors portrayed Bojkovski — who has worked as a shepherd — as someone who presented himself as a quiet neighbour while preying on elderly, frail and vulnerable women. According to the indictment, the victims were women whom the accused approached stealthily and attacked; prosecutors also said that after killing them he satisfied "low urges and necrophilic passions."

With closing arguments completed, the court will decide on the verdict and any sentence at a later session. The trial record will form the basis for the judge's ruling, which has not yet been scheduled publicly.

Photo: SDK.MK)