MP Sela testifies in trial against his attackers

Giving testimony at a trial regarding the violent events in Parliament on 27 April 2017, Zijadin Sela – MP and leader of the Alliance for the Albanians – said in the press room he had been knocked over with a flag pole and had heard threats that he was going to be killed.

While receiving blows to the head from the assailants, Sela said he fell unconscious. He told the court he had regained consciousness after two hours in an office in Parliament, where police and doctors had managed to get into.

Sela said he was rescued only because some police officers had disguised him as an injured policeman to get him out of the Parliament’s building. From there, Sela was transported to a Skopje clinic, where doctors determined he had suffer a life-threatening haemorrhage.

At a trial on Feb. 8, Sela’s lawyer demanded his client be awarded MKD 30 million (EUR 500,000) in compensatory damages.

The money to be awarded as damages should compensate for hospital bills and physical pain and emotional distress, his lawyer told the court.

Ten men are charged with attempted murder of the Macedonian lawmaker.