The number of defendants in free fall


The Amnesty law cut in half the number of defendants in the trial for the April 27 events in parliament. The number of defendants can be further reduced if the Court of Appeals decided to accept the complaints of some of the defendants who initially did not receive amnesty before the Christmas holidays. It should be known by Friday how many defendants will be granted freedom, and how many will remain until the end of the trial and wait for the verdict of Judge Dobrila Kacarska. For the time being, it is certain that five defendants will hear the closing arguments of the prosecution on January 15, the two former police officers, the former director of the Public Security Bureau, Mitko Cavkov and Dusko Lazarov, who was on duty at the MOI operational headquarters, the opera singer Igor Durlovski and the defendants Igor Jug and Jane Cento. According to the indictment, the members of the Ministry of Interior, Cavkov and Lazarov, in charge of security in the Parliament, put themselves in the role of guardians of the assailants and did not issue an order for the deployment of special police forces. Opera singer Durlovski is in the group of organizers of the protests “For a common Macedonia”, who entered the plenary hall in Parliament and continued to provoke the crowd with his speeches. According to the indictment, Jane Cento, chairman of the patriotic association from Prilep, mobilized the membership for the incursion into the assembly after the call from Ninja, and Igor Jug was in charge of liquidating Prime Minister Zoran Zaev. The law on amnesty does not cover these defendants, except Durlovski, for whom it is possible to have a retraining of the act. After the Criminal Court had not amnestied him, the decision of the Court of Appeala was awaited by Goranco Angelovski. The president of the patriotic association from Veles, Goran Gjosevski-Levi, the former parliament speaker Trajko Veljanoski, the former intelligence agency’s agent, Munir Pepic, Mitko Pesov, who had Silver command and Aleksandar Vasilevski – Ninja. For the time being, the Court of Appeals does not disclose exactly how many appeals have arrived at the second instance court. Ninja, who is charged with mobilizing the crowd to enter the Parliament, in his defense revealed that the orders for the incursion in the Parliament came from the eighth floor of the VMRO-DPMNE headquarters. One of those who were not covered by the Amnesty law is Ninja’s friend, Nikola Mitrevski Koljo, who was wearing a balaclava and was heading the crowd into the Parliament, the former IM chief Oliver Popovski, Oliver Radulov and Saso Markovski are accused of destroying the hard disks from the security recordings of the Parliament. The Criminal Council has also decided not to pardon Abdulfeta Alimi, who initially was the hero who saved MP Zijadin Sela, and now is charged because he did not act as security in Parliament when lawmakers opened the doors. If they have not filed an appeal or if they have submitted it and the Court of Appeals decides not to accept it, there will be court trials for the accused Mladen Dodevski, Vlatko Trajkovski and Vilijam Mihajlovski. The first names on the amnesty list were the five lawmakers, Krsto Mukoski, Saso Vasilevski, Ljupco Dimovski, Ljuben Arnaudov and Johan Tarculovski who opened the parliamentary doors and encouraged the crowd to enter. In the first round, both Ivan Cvetanovski and Elena Docevska Bozinovska were amnestied, employees in Veljanoski’s Cabinet, and organizers of the protests Bogdan Ilievski, Boris Damovski and Vlado Jovanovski. Apart from them, others that were granted amnesty are the two brothers Stefan and Mihail Mladenovski, which entered the Parliament in balaclavas, but before the court they discovered that the attack was organized by structures from the Administration for Security and Counter Intelligence. Zaharie Simovski who entered the Assembly with a pistol is in the same group, but confirmed the thesis of the brothers and two defendants in custody, Ilija Slavevski and Mitre Pitropovski. A few hours before New Year’s Eve, the criminal council at the Basic Court Skopje 1 amnestied another five convicted to a suspended prison sentence and the prosecutors then prosecuted for participation in a crowd that would commit a crime. Lawmakers adopted the amnesty law officially as an act of reconciliation, and, unofficially, to provide votes for constitutional changes to implement the agreement signed in Prespa to change the name. State Attorney General Ljubomir Joveski says that the amnesty did not depend on the Prosecution and it remains to the opinion that the prosecutor Vilma Ruskovska will act in a professional manner until the case is completed. ““If it had been up to me and the prosecutor in charge of the case, Vilma Ruskovska, it would have never happened. However, this is my personal view and the Parliament in the process of adopting the law had taken into consideration other circumstances I’m not familiar with. The prosecutors will treat the case professionally until it is closed. But, I have to say that the amnesty procedure has cast light on certain aspects of the event. Testimonies in the courtroom, to the surprise of many, had revealed moments of how the events of April 27 had been prepared. I understand the public’s disappointment, but I have to repeat that it is a political decision. The Public Prosecution is obligated to apply the law,” Joveski said in an interview with MIA. The public still awaits the results of the Prosecution’s preliminary investigation for the organizers and contractors of the intrusion in Parliament, which for the time being are not covered by the Amnesty Law.
(FFC)