English
Igor Jug, one of the political prisoners held over the “April 27th” case, died yesterday from heart attack aged 54. Jug, a dual Macedonian – Croatian citizen who participated in the 2017 incident in the Parliament, and for that was handed a draconian sentence of 12 years in prison.
Jug served eight of them. The trial was used to pressure three members of Parliament into voting for the imposed name change. The Zaev regime gave amnesties to the three, as well as to the protest organizers, but kept a dozen protesters and police officials in prison, and sometimes used them as bargaining chips with the VMRO-DPMNE party. After the fall of the SDSM – DUI regime, the remaining political prisoners called for retrial, insisting that they want to prove their innocence in court. The option of presidential pardons was also placed on the table, but it’s believed that most of the prisoners wanted to have the case go to retrial where they would be found guilty or at least handed down realistic sentences, and not the outrageous penalties that were clearly meant to discourage other protests against the Zaev regime.
Jug reportedly died at home during the celebration of his daughters’ 7th birthday, while his wife is pregnant. He would often talk about his family and how his daughter was forced to grow up without him. He had a temporary release from prison because of his health issues approved by the Bureau of sanctions.
