The Basic Criminal Court of Skopje decided on January 23 to acquit from criminal prosecution the former Speaker of the Parliament, Trajko Veljanovski, former ministers Spiro Ristovski and Mile Janakievski, as well as the former Director of the Directorate for Security and Counterintelligence (DSK), Vladimir Atanasovski, who were accused of being “organizers of violent events” in the Macedonian Parliament on April 27, 2017.
The court's decision was based on the opinion of the Basic Prosecution Office for the Prosecution of Organized Crime and Corruption, which suggested the implementation of the 2018 Amnesty Law.
The accused faced the charge of "Terrorist threat to constitutional order and security".
Judge Ilija Trpkov explained that he personally, and the Council, still hold the view that the legislators' intention was not to amnesty the organizers.
"But, in the provisions of the Amnesty Law, there is a connection according to which the Public Prosecutor's Office and the Court of Appeal consider that these defendants are not persons who acted contrary to their official authority when committing the criminal offense of terrorist threat to the constitutional order," said Judge Ilija Trpkov, underlining that the amnesty decision is likely to arouse emotions.
This was the second trial against the "organizers of the April 27 events."
In the first trial, which ended in July 2021, Veljanovski was sentenced to six and a half years in prison. Former ministers Janakievski and Ristovski received sentences of six years and three months, while former DSK director Vladimir Atanasovski was sentenced to six years in prison.
But in April last year, the Court of Appeal overturned the first-instance verdict. Among the reasons for the annulment of this decision was that the first-instance court had ignored the defendants' appeals when they requested amnesty, under the Amnesty Law, for the violent events in the Assembly. The same case was later returned for retrial. Meanwhile, with the latest decision, the court discontinued all judicial proceedings against the four defendants.
Under the same law, in another procedure, several former MPs Luben Arnaudov, Sasho Vasilevski, Krsto Mukoski, Ljupcho Dimovski, Johan Tarculovski, as well as the leaders of the "For a United Macedonia" protests, Boris Damovski, Bogdan Ilieski, Vlado Jovanovski and Igor Durlovski, were also released.
What happened on April 27, 2017?
On April 27, 2017, the Parliament of North Macedonia was attacked. During the attack by a large group of protesters who opposed the election of Talat Xhaferi as president of this institution, but also the change of power that was under the leadership of the fugitive former Prime Minister, Nikola Gruevski, the leader of the Alliance for Albanians Ziadin Sela, the leader of the Social Democratic League (LSDM), Zoran Zaev, MP Radmila Sheqerinska and many other people were seriously injured.
The party of the Macedonian Prime Minister, Hristijan Mickoski, VMRO-DPMNE, which at that time moved into opposition, held several protests in front of the Government and the Parliament, demanding the release of those convicted of violence in the Parliament.
For the criminal offense "Terrorist threat to constitutional order and security", 16 people were sentenced to 211 years in prison./ REL (A2 Televizion)
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