Trial against the alleged organizers of the violent April 27, 2017, storming of Parliament resumed on Wednesday at the Skopje-based Criminal Court with testimonies of witnesses summoned by the defence.

The witness Oliver Derkovski told the court that he did not hold a position within VMRO-DPMNE in the period 2016-2017, but was a member of the party’s central committee.

He added that although he participated in several Viber groups, he was not a member in one related to the Parliament storming, not did he discuss ‘For United Macedonia’ protests with Mile Janakievski and Spiro Ristovski.

Another witness, Vladimir Nelovski, said that after work on April 27, 2017, he went to a local restaurant with Dime Spasov and Vladimir Stojkovski. After finding out what was happening, they headed to Parliament around 7 pm and stayed there until 9 pm.

“After that I went to the VMRO-DPMNE headquarters for a session of the party’s executive committee. There I met with Spiro Ristovski, Mile Janakievski, Zoran Stavrevski and other party office holders,” Nelovski told the court.

The session started after midnight.

“It was concluded that the violence must be condemned because VMRO-DPMNE had the most to lose from the incident. The session lasted until early morning, after which party leader Nikola Gruevski gave a statement. Then, I went home,” the witness noted.

Six more witnesses are set to testify during Wednesday’s hearing in the ’27 April’ trial.

Judge Ilija Trpkov is presiding over the court proceedings. Ivana Trajcheva is the prosecutor.

Defendants include former Parliament Speaker Trajko Veljanoski, ex-transport minister Mile Janakievski, ex-education minister Spiro Ristovski, as well as former Administration for Security and Counterintelligence director Vladimir Atanasovski.

They are charged with terrorist endangerment of the constitutional order and security.