Ramis Merko fined €5,000 for illegal memorial plaque at municipal entrance
Judge said expert opinions and payment order showed the plaque was placed under Merko's authority despite procedural violations.
The Basic Court in Struga on Monday imposed a €5,000 fine on former mayor Ramis Merko for illegally installing a memorial plaque at the entrance of the municipal building, a court ruling said at the hearing.
Judge cites commission finding and procedural breaches
Judge Jordan Jovanov told the court that the accused bore responsibility for the criminal offence charged, which under the Law on Memorial Monuments and Memorials carries liability even if no public disturbance followed the installation.
“In the context of what the defense presented, that it was allegedly unclear who placed the plaque, from the entire file kept both in the misdemeanor procedure and in this procedure it emerges that the plaque was placed on the Municipal building, which the accused represented as then-mayor. Not even in the misdemeanor procedure was it disputed, i.e. by the very fact that he ordered payment for it, he admitted that the procedure for placing the plaque was not respected, and in the evidence in this case, above all the court relied on the opinion of the Commission for Prevention and Protection from Discrimination, where it was again determined that the harassment was continuously committed by the accused as mayor of the Municipality,” Jovanov said in his reasoning for the decision.
Judge Jovanov also noted that one of the two parallel proceedings had been a misdemeanor case related to failure to follow proper procedure for erecting a memorial, for which a misdemeanor payment order had been issued. The court relied on the Commission’s expert opinion, which was upheld by the Administrative Court and later by the Higher Administrative Court, and on assessments from the Institute of National History about whether the plaque’s symbolism could incite religious or ethnic animosity.
Merko told the court in his final statement that he had no connection to placing the plaque and said the local Association of Albanian Pensioners had acknowledged installing it on the day they hold an annual event to mark the Albanian alphabet. He added that inspectors from the state cultural authorities had fined the Municipality and told him that if the municipality paid the sanction the pensioners would be exempt and the matter closed.
“The Day of the Albanian Alphabet is a solemn day and is celebrated as a public holiday in the Republic of North Macedonia. It is the identity of Albanians wherever they exist and it would be an offense for us if someone interferes with that,” Merko told the court.
Defense lawyer Igor Petkovski pointed out that an identical plaque had been placed at the Albanian Alphabet Museum in the Bitola municipality and that Bitola, a multiethnic community, had not experienced similar incidents of ethnic hostility over such markers.
The Basic Court in Struga also opened proceedings today on a separate charge that Merko signed a contract to light part of the Crn Drim riverbed without a water-management consent from the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning. Two of the three scheduled witnesses were heard; a third witness will be summoned at the next hearing set for 25 November.
Previous rulings separate from this case found Merko liable with fines for illegally appointing school directors in six schools (five final court decisions), while he was acquitted in the procurement case for an official Audi A6.
Photo: press material from the event
