Trials
“Due to the increased interest of the media in relation to the case known under the name “Empire”, we inform the public that the Supreme Court of the Republic of North Macedonia, on March 27, 2019, brought a decision for the case filed under VKZ1.no.19/2019, which accepts the appeal of the defendant of the accused S.M, lawyer Ljupco Shvrgovski, from Skopje, and alters the decision of the Court of Appeal Skopje, KSZ.no. 116/19 from 28.02.2019, in a manner that cancels the detention order and allows the defendant to defend himself out of prison”, is said in the statement of the Supreme Court, with which the house arrest of Saso Mijalkov is officially cancelled, but only for the “Empire” case.
SPO – reactions
Following the statement of Minister of Justice Renata Deskoska that the proposals for the SPO should be translated into a law and presented at a session very soon, as a condition for a recommendation from the EU, the President of Parliament, Talat Xhaferi, came out with a reaction on Facebook and said that the Parliament works according to Rules of Procedure, and not dictation.
“The Parliament of the Republic of North Macedonia works according to the Rules of Procedure, and not by dictation, and even less according to certain individual pretensions, even if they were to be from a minister, regardless of who that may be”, wrote Xhaferi.
Census
After the information that leaked to the public that with the census of the population residing or living abroad there will be manipulations, today, the dilemmas were been clarified also by the Director of the State Statistical Office, Apostol Simovski. His statement comes after yesterday’s statement of Government spokesperson, Muhamed Hodza, that there is no misunderstanding about the draft law between the coalition partners, just that we have simply not gotten to it at a government session.
“Regarding fears that there will be abuses in this part, let no one be afraid. Having in consideration that a combined method will be used in this census, everything will be checked. No one can go by unnoticed. On the other hand, rules prescribed by the international community will be used in regards to the census and also in regards to the defining of the categories of the population…all these fears I have been reading about this week on the portals that non-existing people will be counted, people who have died…all of that will be checked. We as an institution receive data for every child that is born abroad, however, unfortunately, also for everyone who has died”, stated the Director of the State Statistical Office, Apostol Simovski.
Ombudsman
Ahead of the presidential elections and early elections for the mayors of the municipalities of Ohrid, Debar and Novo Selo, the Ombudsman reminded the citizens about the importance of the voting right and the manner of exercising and protecting this right, and at the same time also urged the institutions and all others in regards of the obligation and responsibility for creating real conditions for ensuring, respecting and exercising the citizens’ voting right, as well as the rules for fair and democratic elections.
Everyone has the right to declare their option without suffering any consequences. The citizens are the ones who are deciding. No one should decide on their behalf, through various forms of pressures, blackmail and threats. The citizens must not keep silent, on the contrary, they must be active, because with timely reporting of any kind of irregularities, they are protecting their right and at the same time are contributing to a democratic election process overall.
CIVIL activities and announcements
Hate speech
CIVIL – Center for Freedom strongly condemns hate speech of all political subjects and individuals, organized or unorganized groups, as well as the threats to the life of Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and other political leaders, which a person presenting himself as the leader of the Christian Brotherhood organization, Zarko Trajanovski published in a video message.
The Christian Brotherhood is one of the organizations, close to the radical groups that protested against the Prespa Agreement and the Law on Languages, with part of them being members of the parties of the right-wing political bloc that led the protests that culminated with the attack on the Parliament on April 27, 2017. Their “honorary guests” at the protests were Janko Bacev, Stevce Jakimovski and most of the other more and lesser known radicals. After several months of silence, the Christian Brotherhood has appeared through its spokesperson, Grozdanovski. Supposedly, their “withdrawal” from the public was because of their analyzing of the “stupidity of the politicians”, is said in the announcement of CIVIL – Center for Freedom, on the occasion of the extreme hate speech towards Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and other leaders of political parties.
CIVIL – Center for Freedom yesterday held a panel discussion on the topic hate speech titled “With arguments and truth against hate speech”. Kristina Ozimec, Mersiha Smailovik and Sefer Tahiri addressed the panel with their own views and experiences.
Ozimec: The social networks from a useful tool are turning into a lynch platform
Smailovik: Hate speech creates hate violence
Tahiri: The media are an instrument for spreading hate speech
D. T.
