North Macedonia court frees 4 convicted over 2017 parliament attack

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SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) — Four former officials from North Macedonia’s conservative VMRO-DPMNE party were released on Thursday after their convictions for organizing a violent attack on parliament in 2017 were overturned.

A court in the capital, Skopje, ruled that a 2018 amnesty law applied to the case.

In the April 2017 attack, about 200 protesters stormed parliament in anger over the election of an ethnic Albanian speaker and a proposed coalition government. Dozens of people, including lawmakers and journalists, were injured in the chaos.

The officials who were released on Thursday are Trajko Veljanovski, a former parliamentary speaker, former Cabinet ministers Spiro Ristovski and Mile Janakieski, and Vladimir Atanasovski, a former head of national security.

Following their convictions in 2021, the four had received prison sentences of six to six-and-a-half years for endangering constitutional order and security.

The parliament attack marked one of the most serious challenges to North Macedonia’s political stability since the country gained independence from Yugoslavia in 1991.

In the years since, trials and legal debates surrounding the attack have heightened political divisions, with critics accusing authorities of using amnesty laws to shield powerful figures.

North Macedonia’s conservatives returned to power following the parliamentary and presidential elections last year after being being out of government for seven years.