“April 27”
One of the five suspects as organizers of the attack on the Parliament on April 27, Trajko Veljanovski, former president of Parliament, yesterday left the court thanks to his parliamentary immunity. While leaving, he gave a short statement for the media for which he stated that this accusation is disgraceful after 10 years of presiding with the Parliament.
Basic Court Skopje 1 today sent a request to the Parliament for revoking the immunity of MP Veljanovski, who along with 4 other persons is suspected of organizing the events on April 27 in the Parliament. However, the President of Parliament, Talat Xhaferi, returned it to the court due to a mistake in the article the court refers to.
A press conference was held in the Public Prosecutor’s Office on the occasion of the April 27 events. Prosecutor Vilma Ruskoska said that the pretrial procedure had always been in the direction of revealing the organizers of the event, after which an order had been made for carrying out an investigation procedure against the organizers. Namely, against Trajko Veljanovski, Mile Janakievski and Spiro Ristovski.
Asked about her opinion on what would have happened if the door of the Parliament had not been opened on April 27, 2017, whether the “bloody Thursday” would have happened at all, Ruskoska replied “I think that if the doors had not been opened, the bloody incident would have not happened”.
Threats
Following yesterday’s arrest of Trajko Veljanovski, Mile Janakievski and Spiro Ristovski, VMRO-DPMNE returned with a threat to the government that they will not vote on the reform laws. The coordinator of the parliamentary group of this party, Nikola Micevski, accused that together with Veljanovski there are now a total of 8 requests for revoking the immunity of opposition MPs, and that a fourth of their parliamentary groups is already under investigation. According to him, all these processes are political and unfounded, that is why they requested an election of a new Public Prosecutor upon the proposal of the opposition.
SDSM immediately warned for VMRO-DPMNE not to block the European integrations by not voting on the reform laws. As to whether the request will be reviewed for a prosecutor proposed by the opposition, they say that it has been their promise and that it will happen once VMRO-DPMNE distances itself from the crime in the past.
Tragedy in Laskarci
Public Prosecutor Ljubomir Joveski confirmed that the driver of the bus “Durmo Tours” has been receiving threats. However, there is still no information as to who is guilty for the accident. He urged for the presumption of innocence to be respected, but also the privacy of the driver, who is still being followed. The Public Prosecutor’s Office reminded that the bus driver himself is also a victim of a traffic accident.
Meetings
German expert on the rule of law, Reinhard Priebe, today met with Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and with Minister of Justice, Renata Deskoska.
The reform agenda for the judiciary of the Ministry of Justice was in the focus, as well as the harmonization of our legislation with the European standards.
At the meeting with Zaev, the importance of the implementation of the reforms in the judiciary and the passed laws had been discussed, because, as it had been concluded, one of the important aspects that shows whether a democratic state functions, is having an independent, transparent and efficient judicial system.
Nepotism
The Minister of Administration and Information Society, Damjan Mancevski, publically called on the employees in the administration, who are related with former and current officials, to withdraw by themselves, and announced that he would submit all data to the State Commission for Prevention of Corruption (SCPC).
“I call on those from the position and those from the opposition, which are quite a lot, to withdraw by themselves. We will submit all data to the State Commission for Prevention of Corruption, which will decide upon them”, said Mancevski.
Procedures
Officially, as of midnight, Macedonian citizens are crossing the Macedonian – Greek border only with passports, on which our border police officers put a stamp on in Macedonian, English and French that says that the passport is in the ownership of the Republic of North Macedonia, while the Greek police officers are for the first time putting stamps in the passports.
Observing International Mother Language Day
On February 21, International Mother Language Day is observed, declared at the 30th session of the UNESCO General Conference in 1999. International Mother Language Day is a day for promoting linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism. In 2000, this date was promoted as a Day of linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism.
B. Jordanovska
Translation: N. Cvetkovska
