During the Appeals Court hearing in the case over the demolition of the Cosmos residential building, the defense attorneys insisted that the main defendant, former Transportation Minister Mile Janakieski, is covered by the amnesty given by President Ivanov in 2016. Janakieski was sentenced to three years in prison for the demolition, in one of the politically motivated trials initiated by now disgraced Special Prosecutor Katica Janeva.

As it became clear that the cases against former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, his ministers Janakieski, Gordana Jankuloska and dozens of other top VMRO-DPMNE officials are meant to force Macedonia to change its name and compromise its sovereignty, President Ivanov gave mass pardons to all that were concerned. But under international pressure, a law was adopted to allow recipients of amnesty to ask that the amnesty is revoked. Still, defense attorney Elenko Milanov today noted that, once given, a presidential amnesty can’t be revoked.

None of these 56 amnesties were challenged before the Constitutional Court. There are already decisions by our judicial bodies that they are valid. Something that was adopted can’t be revoked by law. My client has endured four years and 10 months of house arrest despite the valid amnesty, Milanov said.

The case is built around wiretaps indicating that the Government was involved in the decision by municipal authorities to demolish the large residential bloc built by politically linked businessman Fijat Canovski, who abused the building permit to built the development with one less foundation floor – in an apparent attempt to cut costs. Canovski used intermediaries to give hundreds of thousands of euros to prosecutor Janeva, hoping that she will build a case that will open the door for his claim of tens of millions of euros in damages from the Government.