New testimonies on the ‘Bloody April 27’: The violent crowd wanted Albanian blood
MP Muhamed Zekiri and Abdulfetah Alimi, an employee of the parliament’s security services, were next in line to testify on the bloody Thursday of April 27th last year. Alimi is the person believed to have saved the Alliance member for Albanians, Zijadin Sela. He described the moments when Sela was rescued as very dramatic and extremely emotional. He said that the crowd in the press center of the Parliament demanded Albanian blood, and he prayed for Sela not to die in his arms.
“An employee called me to go to the MP’s Club because, as I was informed, Sela was dead. A few minutes later, they told me that there were many injuries. I went there running and found him covered in blood. At that moment one person from the crowd hit Sela with his foot, but I could not see who,” said Alimi. His testimony did not end there. Having thought that Sela was dead, the angry mob pointed their eyes to the current Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, calling him an Albanian. He clarified that he decided to take Sela to the offices on the upper floor through the auxiliary staircase, when he heard someone say that the deal with Sela was not over.
“I went into the press center right after the crowd managed to enter. There I saw Zaev, Sela, Oliver Spasovski, Talat Xhaferi and several other deputies. Zaev had blood on his head, while inside was total chaos. They wanted Albanian blood, and these words came from a crowd that was very aggressive and violent. Together with another colleague, we defended the MPs, as well as the journalists, as much as we could. Along with colleague Vladimir Stojkov and colleague Milanka, we took Sela into the buffet where we gave him first aid,” concluded Alimi, who ended the statement with the words that “on April 27 he met death”.
Alimi also added that he was attacked as well, but thanks to the intervention by his colleagues from the parliament security service, who said that he was one of them, he was not seriously injured. He recognized Kire Georgievski as a face without a mask, who threatened Zoran Zaev, while a person with a hood ordered Sela to be killed.
The SDSM vice-president and MP Muhamed Zekiri was more specific. According to him, Aleksandar Janevski-Tosta is the person who succeeded to pull MP Sela away and took him to the angry crowd.
“I was with a few colleagues at the upper translation office. That door was closed, and from above we could see the violence over the MPs. I saw that they were throwing everything and the MPs started to bleed. Sela as well. At one point, I saw how he bent his head and that there was blood on it. I saw a man with a leather vest grabbing him by the hand and taking him in the direction of the crowd. That person is present in the hall. After Tosta grabbed Sela, several people approached to help him. Sasko Senko and several others. I saw him until the moment they took him out, because so much can be seen from the upper gallery,” Zekiri said.
Previously, the President of the Parliament Talat Xhaferi, Minister Damjan Mancevski and MP Aleksandar Kiracovski, as well as the leader of the Alliance for Albanians, Zijadin Sela, had their own testimonies in court about the violence on April 27th.