Macedonian justice minister resigns over 4-year-old's death

SKOPJE, Macedonia – Macedonia's justice minister has resigned following a public outcry over the case of a 4-year-old boy killed in a traffic incident nearly two years ago.

Bilen Saliji, a minister from the government's junior coalition partner, the ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration, said late Tuesday he was resigning due to deteriorating public trust in the judiciary after a prosecutor reduced the charges against the suspect in the case.

Almir Aliu was killed after being hit by a car in the northern town of Kumanovo in June 2016, allegedly after an argument between his father and the car's driver. The prosecutor amended the charges earlier this month from "deliberate murder" to "serious traffic offense."

Macedonia has been warned by the European Union, which it hopes to join, to reform its judiciary.