Interior Minister Nake Culev said that the incident in Skopje’s Cento district yesterday evening, when dozens of ethnic Albanian citizens protested the curfew and the arrest of three of them, was politically motivated.

Culev said that the police acted professionally after noticing photo evidence that a group of citizens is violating the curfew. Some of the group fled, but three were detained. One of them introduced himself as council member for the SDSM party and demanded that the police officers release him.

Meanwhile, around 22h we were informed that a large group of citizens is gathered at the site of the arrest spurred by a fake report that the detainees were mistreated. I can confirm that this report was false, and it was also confirmed by the detainees. They were arrested on the street, not in their yards. There is a clear attempt to politically manipulate the citizens in this case, Culev said.

The three men were released during the near riot, as SDSM party appointed Mayor Boris Georgievski promised to the protesters to get them to stop violating the curfew.