SkopjeDiem Macedonia in English
Prosecutor Vilma Ruskoska’s opening statement marked on Wednesday the start of the court process against 33 defendants over the parliamentary incidents on 27 April 2017. As she said, the group was led by defendants Aleksandar Vasilevski and Nikola Mitrevski. They, Ruskoska noted, were able to count on both the remaining people that were present and the Interior Ministry members, who, with their failure to act, resulted in the case getting a bloody resolution. According to the charges, everything had started with a phone call to Vasilevski to inform the collocutor about the health of the aforementioned person’s name. After that, brothers Nikola and Stefan Mitrovski bought 36 balaclavas and gave them to Vasilevski. An hour after that, upon an order from Vasilevski, together with Filip Spasovski, they bought another 30 balaclavas, while a group of 68 person had already gathered outside a café on the Vardar quay. While Bogdan Ilievski and Boran Dimovski, who are defendants in the case, too, were “motivating” the gathered protesters, MPs Krsto Mukoski and and Saso Vasilevski opened the Parliament building’s doors. According to the charges, Mitko Cavkov, who was at that time the head of the Public Security Bureau, issued no command that would have prevented violence in Parliament. Ruskoska stated that defendant Igor Jug had been tasked with physically eliminating then-opposition leader Zoran Zaev. In her view, the witnesses’ testimonies will prove that. The trial had started off with objections from the lawyers. Some had requested a separate procedure due to the large number of defendants, whereas others complained of not having all evidence from the Prosecutor’s Office. Another 37 hearings have been scheduled for the case. Another MP, Johan Tarculovski, is among the defendants as well.
