Today marks the eight anniversary of the 2012 Good Friday massacre, the worst Islamist attack in Macedonia, when three ethnic Albanian Islamists killed four ethnic Macedonian youngsters and a man. Filip Slavkovski, Aleksandar Nakevski, Cvetanco Ackovski and Kire Trpkovski, all aged between 18 and 21, and Borce Stevkovski (45) were killed while visiting a small lake north of Skopje.
The three killers were Alil Demiri and brothers Afrim and Agim Ismailovic. Demiri and Afrim Ismailovic fled to Kosovo while Agim Ismailovic and four accomplices were sentenced to life in prison.
The trial became completely politically manipulated in 2015, when SDSM party leader Zoran Zaev began claiming that he has additional evidence that will throw a different light on the massacre. This prompted ethnic Albanian parties in Macedonia to demand the release of the detained killer and his accomplices, and this turned into a major point in the so-call Tirana platform of the main Albanian parties in 2017. The move also helped Zaev gain ethnic Albanian votes in the December 2016 elections, where he presented himself as an opponent of the VMRO-DPMNE Government which, he claimed, falsely accused ethnic Albanians of a hideous crime. SDSM ailgned media outlets and commentators were busily spreading various conspiracy theories trying to link VMRO-DPMNE with the massacre, just as they did with numerous other emotionally charged cases such as the murder of Martin Neskovski, the traffic accident death of journalist Nikola Mladenov and the death of the young Tamara Dimovska.
Shortly after Zaev grabbed power in 2017, a retrial was ordered and the prosecution was given to Zaev’s loyal Special Prosecutor’s Office. Ismailovic and the accomplices were released from prison. Meanwhile, Zaev kept refusing the desperate pleas from the families of the killed boys who demanded that he finally goes public with the new evidence he claimed he had. Finally this February Zaev came to testify in the re-trial and he eventually acknowledged that he has no additional evidence to offer in this case.
Comments are closed for this post.