Large scale protests took place in Bitola today, where the court sentenced a police officer to a year in prison and cost him his job, over an attack on several drunken Roma citizens. Goce Petkovski was filmed kicking three Roma citizens last September in a case that caused outrage and protests from local Roma NGO groups.

His defenders and the local police union say that what was not shown on the video was that the group of Roma were drunken and disorderly, and in this condition caused a serious traffic accident in which people could have been hurt. The union claims that the Roma then insulted and provoked several officers who came to the scene.