Boki 13 acquitted as Skopje court overturns five-year term
The Skopje Court of Appeals reversed an October 2025 ruling by the Basic Criminal Court and acquitted Bojan Jovanovski in the Medjunarodni Savez case.
Bojan Jovanovski, better known as Boki 13, has been acquitted in the “Medjunarodni Savez” (International Union) case. On November 3, 2026, the Skopje Court of Appeals reversed the Basic Criminal Court’s ruling, under which he received a single sentence of five years in prison for fraud and money laundering in October 2025.
His lawyer, Saso Dukovski, announced the decision publicly on Facebook. The court has not yet released its reasoning or legal grounds, and the available sources do not say whether the verdict is final.
What did the lawyer say about the verdict?
In his post, quoted by the Macedonian outlet Expres, Dukovski said that “justice is slow but attainable.” According to the same source, he added that “a bad indictment is followed by an acquittal.”
Expres also reports that the Court of Appeals used this decision to reverse the five-year first-instance sentence.
What was Jovanovski accused of?
The indictment alleged that money was taken from businesspeople through the nongovernmental organization “Medjunarodni Savez” on the pretext of building homes for the elderly and carrying out social projects. The case moved through the courts as follows:
- July 2020: the trial begins
- April 2022: first-instance verdict, nine years in prison
- April 2024: the Court of Appeals upholds the appeals, overturns the verdict and sends the case back for retrial
- October 2025: in the retrial, the Basic Criminal Court in Skopje hands down a single sentence of five years for fraud and money laundering
- November 3, 2026: the Court of Appeals reverses that verdict and acquits him
Slightly more than six years passed between the start of the trial and this decision, while Expres refers in its headline to five years of trial in this case.
What about the other defendants?
Jovanovski was not the only defendant. Expres notes that the Court of Appeals earlier upheld the acquittal of former lawmaker Frosina Tasevska Remenski, while the initial verdicts for some of the other defendants were overturned and the case was returned for retrial. The sources we reviewed do not say what today’s decision means for the remaining defendants, so there is no information on that.
Does the decision also affect the “Reket” case?
No. The acquittal applies only to “Medjunarodni Savez.” In the separate “Reket” (Racket) case, the Court of Appeals reduced Jovanovski’s sentence from nine to five years in prison in March 2025. He was on approved leave for medical treatment at the time and, according to N1, was released because of his worsening health, and has been free since.
The two five-year sentences come from two different cases and should not be confused. The November 3 ruling touches only one of them.
