Macedonia Moves Forward With Amnesty Law

The Macedonian parliament's so-called committee on reconciliation finished drafting a law on Wednesday offering an amnesty to those who took part in last year's violent rampage in parliament.

If matters go as planned, the law will soon find itself on the list for speedy adoption.

The draft law will offer amnesty only to those who did not personally commit any violent acts in the rampage and who did not organize the events, an opposition VMRO DPMNE MP, Zekir Ramcilovic, told the media on Wednesday.

Ramcilovic, who is a member of the committee that worked on the draft, insisted that the amnesty will not diminish the importance of the ongoing trial against 33 suspects accused of participating in the violence of April 27, 2017.

"This way, we think the process [the ongoing trial] which should provide answers about what happened on April 27 will continue, and we will have a legal ending where justice finds its place," he said.

Meanwhile, the MP added: "We will have an amnesty for some of the people who were part of the events, and so we are making the first step towards relaxing the divisions in society that emerged after this event".

The parliamentary committee will likely soon submit the draft for adoption at a plenary session, under a shortened procedure.

The planned "selective" amnesty has drawn much criticism for the country's Social Democrat Prime Minister, Zoran Zaev.

Critics accuse him of trading the rule of law for opposition votes in order to reach the political goal of implementing the historic agreement with Greece on the country's name.

This would then unlock Macedonia's stalled Euro-Atlantic integration process, allowing it to join NATO and open talks on membership with the EU. Zaev...

Continue reading on: