A judge in Kumanovo confirmed the initial sentence against local Boban Ilik for the vehicular murder of 4 years old Almir Aliu in 2016. Ilik is again sentenced to six years in prison.

The murder happened during a late night doctor visit. Ilik and the Aliu family reportedly got into a fight over who was the first in line to see the doctor first and exchanged blows. Ilik later waited for the Aliu family and drove his car into them, killing Almir.

The murder heightened ethnic tensions in Kumanovo, a city which suffered a major attack a year before the incident, given that the murder was perpetrated across ethnic lines. Albanian activists demanded that Ilik is sentenced as murderer and is not allowed to claim that the boy’s death is an accident.