In November 2007, 72 collectors, controllers, and senior staff of North Macedonia’s public roads company were arrested on suspicion of misappropriating toll charges in what was then branded as the largest and longest police operation in the country. Although announced by authorities as exposing the “biggest corruption case”, after 16 years in the courts the statute of limitations expired and the historic “Snake Eyes” case was discontinued without ever reaching a final verdict.

The group was accused of forming a criminal association that did not issue receipts for toll charges and instead took the money and shared it among themselves. While a first-instance verdict was handed down in November 2008 for "abuse of official position and authority," only 13 of the 72 defendants were convicted, and the charge of forming a criminal association was dismissed. Around a year later, the Appellate Court found inconsistencies in the initial verdict, and returned the case to the Basic Court in Skopje, stating that the special investigative measures did not prove anything and requested an assessment of the amount of damage to the state budget.

The lawyer of one of the accused pointed out that the government's aim with these charges was to demonstrate its commitment to fight corruption, but the case became a symbol of staged processes influenced by politics, while some prosecutors and judges involved in the case advanced in their careers afterwards.

Following the initial arrest, many of the accused were kept in custody for several months, with some spending up to 13 months behind bars. In May 2008, Nikola Vasilkovski and 37 other defendants filed a lawsuit with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, arguing that they were unjustly detained.

The human rights court ruled that the continued pre-trial detention violated Article 5(3) of the European Convention on Human Rights as it was not satisfactorily justified. The court criticised the Macedonian judiciary for failing to provide specific reasons for continued detention, and for refusing to consider individual circumstances or offer alternative solutions to deprivation of liberty.

Over the years, the court of appeal returned the case to the first instance court three times, resulting in convictions, suspended sentences, and acquittals. In September 2023, as the case ground through its fourth re-trial, amendments to North Macedonia’s criminal code came into effect which reduced prison sentences and the statute of limitations for the several corruption crimes. Now in its sixteenth year, the court ruled the so-called "Snake Eye" case was statute-barred, and the prosecution withdrew the charges. No final verdict was ever reached.

Unjustified custody of defendants and a 16-year-long trial without a final verdict are just some of the numerous peculiarities of this case. One of the accused who faced charges for not issuing receipts for a mere 120 denars (€2) died during the trial without seeing justice served. The method used by the court to determine financial damages was also questioned in court hearings, especially since Macedonia Roads – the enterprise employing the accused – withdrew its compensation claim early on after the year-end balance for 2007 showed surplus funds. The defendants argued that the presumption of innocence was not respected, as they were suspended from their jobs and later reassigned. Along with the individual mentioned above, three more of the accused and two lawyers died during the legal process without witnessing the outcome.

After the trial, the accused announced that they would seek compensation on all possible grounds. One of them stated:

"Our lives have been turned into a 16-year-long legal process. No money can bring back our lives. We went through countless court hearings, around 130, 140 in number. This is not justice; the statute of limitations is not justice for us."

The 2023 amendments to the criminal code resulted in a lack of justice for those who went through a 16-year-long trial process. However, the consequences of these amendments are expected to extend far beyond this; because they reduce the length of prison sentences for abuse of office and involvement in a criminal enterprise a door is opened for greater impunity to those involved in political corruption.