The Government believes that the President Gjorge Ivanov cannot pardon convicts in the case related to April 27 parliament storming, because he would violate the Constitution and the laws, Government Spokesperson Mile Boshnjakovski said at Wednesday’s press conference, adding that the government does not expect Ivanov would dare to do that.

There are two reasons why pardoning procedure cannot be conducted by the President, the procedure is conducted solely by Ministry of Justice. Considering that there are no legal grounds for pardoning by the President, the procedure is conducted by Justice Ministry, since there is no legal basis for pardoning without pre-trial procedure in the Justice Ministry, Boshnjakovski said.

Boshnjakovski also reminded that Article 11 of the Law on Pardoning, which allowed the President to pardon, was deleted.

 

With the abolishing decision of the Constitutional Court in 2016, that Article has not been reintroduced in the law, so that there is no such instrument in country’s legal system, Boshnjakovski said.

The second reason, as Boshnjakovski said, is the fact that during the period of presidential elections, no pardons can be given.

For now, the Ministry of Justice has also not received any requests for pardoning the convicted persons in the case related to April 27 parliament storming. Everything that will be done outside these frames would definitely be a violation of both the laws and the Constitution. We do not expect that the President would dare to do that, said Spokesperson Boshnjakovski.