VMRO-DPMNE presidential candidate Gordana Siljanovska – Davkova, confirmed that, if elected, she will pardon the political prisoners given long sentences over the April 27th incident.

It is important, in the name of justice, ethics and morality, that the President sometimes taps the brakes on the judiciary. I intent to do that. I’m horribly stricken by the fate of Jane Cento. is it possible that the fate of his ancestor is being repeated again, in the 21st century, in modern day Macedonia?, Siljanovska said.

Cento is the great-grandson of Metodija Andonov – Cento, a prominent merchant who was made President of the ASNOM assembly during World War Two, when an independent Macedonian state was declared. Because he pushed for a more independent Macedonian role in Yugoslavia, and because of his resistance to the post-war “reforms”, the elder Cento was arrested by the Communist regime and kept in prison until his health was ruined, released only to avoid having him die in prison.

Jane Cento, who lives in his ancestors’ hometown of Prilep, was a vocal opponent of the SDSM led Colored Revolution. He warned that SDSM is leading Macedonia down the path where it will stop being a Macedonian nation state. He also participated in the protests against SDSM’s takeover of power in 2017, which ended with a storming of the Parliament on April 27th, provoked by SDSM’s move to elect Talat Xhaferi as Speaker of Parliament in an irregular session. During this incident, Cento acknowledges that he kicked SDSM leader Zoran Zaev.

Months later, under the SDSM – DUI regime, he was rounded up along with over a dozen protesters as well as selected police officials, VMRO-DPMNE members of Parliament and protest organizers, for a major show-trial that was used by the regime for political purposes. The three members of Parliament that were arrested, for opening the Parliament doors to protesters, were pressured and threatened with long prison sentences for “terrorism” until they agreed to vote for the imposed name change of the country. As soon as the deal was struck, the regime put to vote an amnesty law covering the three, as well as three of the protest organizers. But the participants in the protest, including Jane Cento, were not covered by the amnesty and remained to serve excessively long sentences, of up to 15 years in prison. The singling out of Jane Cento, from thousands of protesters, raised comparisons between the SDSM – DUI regime and the post-war Communist regime, which both started their reigns by going after this family, which has come to represent the struggle for an independent and sovereign Macedonian state.

Jane Cento was assaulted in prison and denied visitation rights to his family, including his young son. Even President Stevo Pendarovski acknowledged that the prison sentences and the qualification of the crime as “terrorist endangerment of the constitutional order”, is excessive. But Pendarovski refused to pardon the prisoners, and SDSM continued to use their plight as a bargaining chip with VMRO-DPMNE – whenever the issue of early elections or a difficult vote in Parliament would appear, when SDSM would need something from the opposition, they put the possible release of the prisoners on the table. Only as the elections drew closer, and with SDSM’s continued decline in the polls, did the ruling regime begin to allow family visits and other leniency to the political prisoners.