The Skopje Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office (PPO) has filed an indictment against Stojanche Jovanovski for the Karposh tragedy in which his wife Ivana and their daughter Katja lost their lives after falling from a balcony. He is charged with three criminal offenses – Bodily injuries committed as an act of domestic violence, Endangering safety, and Inciting suicide and aiding suicide.
According to the indictment, on March 2, at several locations in Skopje, he physically injured his wife. He hit her with slaps and punches, causing her bodily injuries, from which she lost consciousness at one point. On the same day, in the parking lot behind the Skopje Basic Criminal Court, the defendant also made serious threats, causing her to feel insecure, threatened, and afraid.
According to the evidence provided, the defendant acted cruelly and inhumanly towards the injured party for a long period of time, who was in a position of factual and existential dependence and subordination towards him, and because of such treatment, she committed suicide on March 2, which can be attributed to the defendant’s negligence. The defendant persuaded the now deceased Ivana Jovanovska in November 2022 to cede to him, through a gift agreement, her ideal share of the apartment in which they lived together with their minor daughter, with the condition that the injured party and the child would remain living in the apartment. However, after acquiring ownership, the defendant began to mentally and physically abuse her, and in 2025 the intensity of the abuse turned into cruel and inhumane treatment towards his wife.
The defendant increasingly beat and belittled her in their home in the presence of their minor daughter, in public places, and in front of other witnesses, threatening to kick her out of the home where they lived, and to take their minor daughter away from her. When on the critical day the woman was again exposed to his psychological and physical abuse in several locations, as well as his threats and insults, she returned to the apartment with the child. She asked to go up to the apartment alone with her daughter to pack and leave, but the defendant insisted on going up with her, where he continued to threaten her. A witness to the incident pushed the defendant away and they got off together in front of the building to wait for the injured party to pack.
However, the abuse led the victim to a state of severe psychological distress, fear, hopelessness and a sense of helplessness, and without being able to reasonably manage and control her actions, she committed suicide by jumping from the terrace of the sixth-floor apartment together with their minor child. The Public Prosecutor also submitted a proposal to the Skopje Basic Criminal Court for the extension of the previously determined detention measure for the suspect, due to flight risk and the possibility of him continuing to commit violent crimes.
