Parliament incident trial postponed to May 23

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The Skopje Basic Court in Skopje has postponed the trial of nine accused of storming the parliament. The reason for trial’s postponement to May 23 is to the absence of the one of the accused who was supposed to be brought from house arrest.

Two persons, a father and son, are charged with murder attempt, for their role in beating the AA leader Zijadin Sela, who suffered the worst injuries. Some of those charged were ordered in detention and others put under house arrest. Members of Parliament gave statements before the prosecutors, who were also using video recordings to identify the attackers. About 30 persons are charged with participating in the crowd that stormed the Parliament on April 27. Собрание тепачка

President Gjorge Ivanov called on the Parliament to consider granting amnesty to the participants in the protests, in the spirit of reconciliation after the protracted political crisis. President Ivanov reminded the Parliament that it has voted on amnesty for war crimes to facilitate reconciliation after 2001, and that in this case people were driven by their emotions and provoked by the events in the Parliament.

A group of citizens, family members and friends of the accused gathered Thursday in front of the building of Basic Court to express their support carrying signs which read “I believed in everything but not that I will be tried by my people for Macedonia,” and waving flags of Vergina Sun.

If Parliament demonstrates goodwill, in particular the parliamentary majority, and if they want the country to go through a process of reconciliation, they should then turn their words into actions, President Gjorge Ivanov said Wednesday commenting on the possibility of pardoning the men who were part of a mob that stormed Parliament on April 27.