Opening statements in Bloody Thursday trial: The defendants were saviors, not terrorists
Reputable people who recited and sang in front of the Parliament, MPs who waved their hands without making any signs to open the door of the Parliament and let the crowd in, a policeman who saved the life of MP Zijadin Sela and a minister who safely evacuated the people who were inside the Parliament, on the evening of April 27th.
These are the opening statements of some defendants’ lawyers for the so-called Bloody Thursday. Their lawyers persuaded the trial council and the public that the former interior minister, who led the critical day’s action, Mitko Cavkov, lawyer Ljuben Arnaudov, former social media influencer and now member of the VMRO-DPMNE executive committee, Bogdan Ilievski, police officer Abdulfetam Alimi, actor Vlado Jovanovski, MP Ljupco Dimovski, opera singer Igor Durlovski, are people who saved lives, not terrorists.
Mitko Cavkov’s lawyer Saso Dukovski said his client should have been rewarded, not punished.
“Cavkov needs to be rewarded, not punished,” said Dukovski, because thanks to him the people in the Assembly were safely evacuated.
He also referred to the Guidelines, according to which Cavkov did not follow and did not engage police forces.
“Besides Cavkov, there are two more, the Minister of the Interior and the chief of the special police force, so it is unclear how Cavkov was tne one elected as the greatest devil, and the other two are exempted,” said Dukovski.
Dukovski says the whole event ended in one hour and twenty minutes. “What were they supposed to do, teleport police officers to put an end to it quicker, or there would have been 100 dead if the police used excessive force,” concluded Dukovski.
The lawyer who defends the accused Ljupco Dimovski and Munir Pepic gave an interesting interpretation of how they will prove that Dimovski is innocent. According to the lawyer, Elenco Milanov, they will prove that Dimovski accidentally made a gesture with his hands, and did not give a signal to open the doors to the Parliament. According to Milanov, this was the only evidence against MP Dimovski, and therefore they provided recordings of his public appearances to prove that the MP had a habit of making this gesture.
“I was not aware of this until the public session in Appeal when I noticed that Dimovski has a habit of moving his hands. For this, the court will be convinced of the footage that we have submitted, that is, it makes it by habit, and that he is not aware of it at all,” said Milanov.
For opera singer Igor Durlovski, Milanov claims that he did not set foot in the press hall in the Parliament, but was only present in the plenary hall and the hall of the Parliament, where there was no violence, so he can not be prosecuted for terrorism.
In opening statement, lawyer Donco Nakov emphasized the words of his clients Ljuben Arnaudov, Bogdan Ilievski, Vlado Jovanovski and Abdulfetam Alimi, and said that they did the crime of terrorism by only using their words.
He described MP Arnaudov as a gynecologist who has delivered 15,000 babies, a MP who was elected in the Parliament with a broad majority and a man with a great reputation in Ohrid. For Vlado Jovanovski he said that there was no one who did not know him. “He is a normal person with credits that are not small, patriotic and emotional,” said Nakov.
Bogdan Ilievski was an architect who managed to prevent any incident for 65 days in the protests of the “For Macedonia” initiative and a man who expressed his views through his articles and speeches in front of the Parliament.
The lawyer described Alimi as a great professional who saved Sela’s life. Sela offered his house as a guarantee that Alimi would not run away.
The Bloody Thursday trial, in which 33 defendants, MPs, senior MOI officials and organizers of the “For United Macedonia” initiative are being tried, began Wednesday. The main judge in this case is Dobrila Kacarska, and prosecutor Vilma Ruskovska. The prosecutor read the indictment on Thursday that Cavkov is charged that although he knew that the lives of journalists and lawmakers were under threat in the Parliament, he did not issue an order for the deployment of additional and special police forces.
The defendants opened the Parliament doors to the citizens, and the organizers of the protests held speeches inciting violence.
Instead of director of the BPS – juror in the trial for the April 27 events
The retired general, Zoran Jovanovski-Celik, who was mentioned as a possible successor to the dismissed director of the Bureau of Public Security (BPS), Lazo Velkovski, is a juror-judge in the trial for the so-called ‘Bloody Thursday’.
The trial for the April 27th events began Wednesday, following the announcement of the name of the new director of the Bureau, Saso Tasevski. After the dilemma that Velkovski was already resolved in the public, reporters saw the retired general in the trial council.
Jovanovski was the first name that was published as a possible successor to Velkovski. He spent his whole working life in the police force, and during his service he suffered a severe injury.
He is a great professional among colleagues. However, in the place of Velkovski, Interior Minister Oliver Spasovski decided to choose Saso Tasevski, the head of the Sixth Administration, that is, the Security Department of the Ministry of Interior.
Tasevski was remembered in public as a defender of Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and other MPs in the raid that took place in the Parliament on April 27th.
Today, the Director of the Bureau of Public Security has handed over the duties to the newly appointed director Tasevski.
Velkovski was dismissed from office because his bodyguard took his daughter to Greece to the Evridiki camp with an official vehicle owned by the Ministry of Interior. According to Velkovski, he was forced to do so because he and his family had been under death threats for a long time, and on August 2 he was not able to personally take his daughter to Greece because he had to go to work due to the incidents that occurred at Meckin Kamen.
Several photos and a video of the official Jeep vehicle were published to the public, but it is still not revealed who followed the car.
Frosina Fakova-Serafinovic