President pardons Shefije Jakupi; 20-year sentence reduced

President Gordana Siljanovska Davkova has granted a pardon to 71-year-old Shefije Jakupi from the village of Zajas, shortening the prison term the woman was serving for the killing of her husband. The pardon reduces Jakupi’s sentence by one year and six months; she had been sentenced to 20 years and has spent more than 17 years behind bars.

Jakupi’s case stretches back decades and has drawn attention because of the circumstances she described about life in marriage and the manner in which the body was disposed of after the killing.

Details of the killing and aftermath

According to court records and testimony, Jakupi was married at 18 to Abaz, then 24. The couple moved to Germany after their wedding, and Jakupi later said that during the marriage Abaz regularly abused her. After 34 years of marriage and during what she described as a heated domestic fight, she took an axe and killed him. She then used an electric bread slicer to cut the body into parts.

Jakupi reportedly wrapped most of the remains in a black bag and threw it into a dumpster; those remains were never recovered because they allegedly ended up in a garbage truck’s shredder. Other fragments she disposed of in a toilet, which subsequently blocked the building’s sewer system in Düsseldorf. After the incident she returned to Kičevo and was later located by police in a psychiatric hospital in Demir Hisar.

Reflecting on years of abuse, Jakupi had told prison officials in Idrizovo four years ago: "He beat me, he drank, he had affairs... I was hospitalized four times after he beat me. I endured, I endured for years, but one day I could no longer."

With the presidential pardon now entered, Jakupi’s remaining time to serve has been cut and authorities say she should be released soon. The decision to grant clemency has not been accompanied by public explanation beyond the formal note of reduction in the punishment.

Photo: Слободен Печат / Драган Митрески