5.  The applicant was born in 1993 and lives in Skopje.
6.  At about 1.00 a.m. on 11 February 2012 a physical altercation took place at a night club in Skopje involving the applicant, a certain R., and several other young men. As a consequence, R. suffered injuries to his nose and face and was taken to hospital by his friends. He was released later that same night.
7.  The police were called to the scene and drew up an official “note” (службена белешка) in which the event was described as a fight involving the applicant, R. and a certain P.
8.  On 11 June 2012 an investigating judge (истражен судија) opened an investigation against the applicant, with oral evidence being provided by the applicant, R., and witnesses J. and K., the latter being friends of R.’s. In their statements they all maintained that on the evening in question R. had been attacked by the applicant.
9.  In the course of the investigation, on 6 September 2012 the applicant gave an oral statement and proposed that an eyewitness, P. (see paragraph 7 above), be questioned as a witness on his behalf. In his statement he claimed that during the initial provocations by R. and his friends, P. had been in the toilet but that towards the end of the altercation P. had been present and had witnessed the event and had even grabbed hold (“да придржи”) of one of the witnesses. The applicant maintained that he was the one who had been attacked by R., J. and K. and that he had acted in self-defence.
10.  The investigating judge commissioned an expert report regarding the nature and intensity of the injuries suffered by R., which was compiled on 26 September 2012 by G.A., a traumatology surgeon (специјалист хирург ‑ трауматолог). According to the expert report, the injuries suffered by R. fell to be classified in the domestic law category of “grievous bodily injury” (тешка телесна повреда).
11.  On 4 October 2012, the applicant was indicted before Skopje Court of First Instance (“Основен суд Скопје I” – “the trial court”) for causing “grievous bodily injury”. The prosecution proposed that R. and two witnesses, J. and K., be questioned. The expert report (see paragraph 10 above) was also adduced as evidence.
12.  The applicant lodged an objection against the indictment on 22 November 2012. In his objection he reiterated his request that the eyewitness P. be questioned, as well as two more witnesses, M.K. and B. It was proposed that M.K. testify as an eyewitness to the event and B. testify to the fact that the applicant had come under attack by the same group on a previous occasion, which B. had prevented.
13.  The objection was dismissed by a panel of Skopje Court of First Instance on 29 November 2012.
14.  At a public hearing before the trial court which took place on 12 February 2013, evidence was given by the applicant, and by R., J. and K. In his statement, witness J. said that during the altercation, P. (the witness proposed by the applicant) had launched himself (“му се фрли”) at K., the other witness.
15.  At the same hearing the defence reiterated its request that P. and M.K. be questioned as eyewitnesses to the event. The trial court refused the request on the grounds that neither P. nor M.K. had been an eyewitness to the event. It also pointed out that M.K. had not been mentioned before in the other witnesses’ statements or at any time during the proceedings. At the same hearing, the trial court accepted a request from the defence to examine the official police note of the event (see paragraph 7 above).
16.  At the subsequent public hearing, which took place on 19 March 2013, the expert G.A. gave oral evidence. He was cross-examined by the defence counsel with regard to his competence to classify injuries. At this hearing, the same evidentiary requests were reiterated by the defence regarding P. and M.K. It was further proposed that another witness, M.R., be questioned and that a fresh expert examination be commissioned by the trial court because the present one was inconclusive and had been compiled by a traumatology expert. In this regard, it was submitted that due to the nature of the injuries in question, an expert opinion by an ENT (ear, nose and throat) specialist should be commissioned. It was also requested that a neuro-psychiatric specialist prepare an expert opinion in respect of the applicant’s psychological state on the evening of the altercation in order to establish his mental capacity at the time of the events in question.
17.  At the same hearing the trial court refused all requests by the defence, stating:
“The defence’s request to question witnesses M.R., P. and M.K. is refused for the same reasons as stated in the minutes of 12 February 2013. Since there has already been an expert report commissioned in the case, further requests for the commissioning of additional expert reports are refused, and the court is already in possession of sufficient evidence to establish the facts in the case.”
18.  Closing arguments were also delivered at that hearing, in which the applicant complained that all the evidentiary testimony proposed on his behalf had been rejected by the trial court and he had therefore been prevented from proving his case.
19.  On the same day the trial court delivered a judgment, finding the applicant guilty and sentencing him to a suspended prison sentence of one year. The trial court based its findings on the expert report, the statement given by R. and the statements given by the two witnesses J. and K. Although the trial court in its reasoning accepted that there had been a third person, the applicant’s friend, involved in the altercation, it considered that the defence’s arguments contradicted the other evidence put before it sufficiently, thereby showing that the applicant was guilty of the offence he had been charged with.
20.  The applicant submitted two appeals, one through a lawyer on 17 April 2013 and another personally on 22 April 2013. In the appeals it was stated that none of the witnesses proposed by the defence had been questioned by the trial court and none of the expert opinion requests had been accepted, effectively rendering the taking of evidence in the case completely one-sided. It was further stated in the appeals that the commissioned expert opinion was inconclusive with regard to the type of injury suffered by R., meaning that the trial court could therefore not ascertain whether that type of injury contained the elements of “grievous bodily injury”.
21.  On 11 July 2013 the Skopje Court of Appeal (“the appellate court”) held a public hearing. At the hearing a representative of the High Prosecutor’s Office (Вишо јавно обивнителство) proposed that the appeals should be allowed and the case remitted because of omissions made by the trial court in respect of the expert report.
22.  On the same day the appellate court dismissed the appeals and confirmed the trial court’s judgment in its entirety. The relevant parts of the judgment read as follows:
“In the appeals it is stated that the defence’s request to question P. as a witness was wrongfully rejected and that it could have significantly contributed to different conclusions with regard to the facts ... [T]his court finds that the request was rightfully rejected by the lower court because the witness P. was not an eyewitness to the event in question, which is supported by the statement of the accused given at the investigation stage ...
... from the statement [of R.] ... which finds support in the statements given by J. and K., it can be concluded that on the evening in question the accused insulted R., the accused then hit R. over the head with a glass. ... R. fell down, losing consciousness and K. ran to his aid, but was hindered by a friend of the accused ...”
23.  This judgment was served on the applicant’s lawyer on 3 September 2013.