Basic Court in Ulcinj sentences Sashka Stojanovska to 45 days for running over dog
Court found her guilty of killing and mistreating animals after a July 24, 2026 incident in Ulcinj; psychiatric report cited reduced capacity.
The Basic Court in Ulcinj found 43-year-old Sashka Stojanovska from Skopje guilty of the criminal offence of "killing and mistreatment of animals and destruction of their habitat" and sentenced her to 45 days in prison.
Details of the incident and court reasoning
According to the verdict, on July 24, 2026, at around 3:00 p.m., in Ulcinj on Teuta Boulevard in the Ulcinjsko Pole neighbourhood near the Hotel Hoti, Stojanovska drove a Mercedes and ran over a dog of the sharplaninac breed at least twice. The animal sustained injuries from which it later died.
When determining the penalty, the court took into account several mitigating factors: Stojanovska's family circumstances, the fact that she is the mother of two children (one of them a minor), her lack of prior convictions, and a significantly reduced mental capacity at the time the offence was committed. The reduced capacity was established on the basis of an expert opinion by a psychiatrist.
The court included the following statement in the verdict: "The court did not find any circumstances that would aggravate the guilt." It further assessed that the imposed sentence is proportionate to the gravity of the offence, the personality of the accused and the circumstances under which it was committed, and that it will achieve the aims of punishment.
The sentence of 45 days' imprisonment will be credited with the time Stojanovska spent in pre-trial detention, beginning on July 24, 2026, at 20:30.
Judges also underlined that the punishment should serve both to prevent future unlawful conduct and to send a clear social condemnation of any form of cruelty and killing of animals.
Photo: Fejsbuk / Marta Darmanovikj / printskrin
