The appeals court in Skopje rejected as unfounded the appeals of the five defendants in the “Monster” case in relation to the massacre at Smilkovo Lake. With this decision, the sentences for life imprisonment of the defendants Alil Demiri, Afrim Ismailovic and Agim Ismailovic are once again uphelded, for whom the five-fold murder in 2012 remains a terrorist act.

The first-instance sentence of Haki Aziri for two crimes of assisting a perpetrator after commission of a crime, who received 5 years each in a single sentence of 9 years in prison for the two crimes. The time spent in detention is also calculated for him, so since he has been detained for 6.5 years, he only has about 3 years of his prison sentence left to serve.

The second-instance court confirmed the single sentence of 15 years in prison to the accused Fejzi Aziri for two crimes of assisting a perpetrator after the commission of a crime. 6 years spent in detention for “Monster” are deducted from it.

The Court of Appeal confirmed that the sixth defendant, Sami Ljuta, is acquitted.

After the murder, Alil Demiri and Afrim Ismailovic fled to Kosovo and so far Kosovo has repeatedly refused to extradite them to Macedonia.