English
It will no longer matter whether the perpetrator is the owner of the home or not; if the intervening police officer assesses that there is a risk, they will be able to remove him with a verbal order, Interior Minister Panche Toskovski announced at today’s briefing for journalists, where he presented the proposed amendments to the law on prevention and protection from violence against women and domestic violence. The amendments have already been submitted to the Assembly, and he hopes they will be adopted as soon as possible.
According to the legal amendments we are proposing, if the police officer on the spot, based on a risk assessment and in line with procedure, determines that there is a serious risk that the victim may be subjected to domestic violence, he will be able to issue an urgent measure—a verbal order—to remove the person from the home for 48 hours, even if that person is the owner of the home, he explained.
The police officer issues an urgent measure and removes the potential abuser from the home. I say “potential abuser.” If he is an abuser, that is handled in another place. These are cases where we do not have the elements to prove the case so that we can propose it to the public prosecutor, who would then request it from the court, and the court would then rule that the person should be removed. No—when we do not have evidence, the police officer makes the decision and issues a verbal order, and within six hours a written order is also issued. The victim and the Center for Social Work are immediately notified of this decision on removal from the home, and with the written order the court is asked to extend the measure. The court will decide whether to extend that measure from 48 hours to 30 days, Toskovski explained.
Once the law is adopted, there will also be bylaws, training for police officers, and the experience of international partners will be included… All in all, it is a long process whose ultimate goal is greater protection of the victims.
In response to questions from some journalists about where a person removed from his own home will go, he said that there are still details to be worked out, but that the most important thing is to protect the victims. If police officers are given the authority for faster intervention, the mechanisms for handling cases of domestic violence will also be strengthened.
What are we protecting? The right to property or the right to life? I don’t know about you, but when I weigh them, I take the decisions toward the stronger right, said Toskovski.