Judge Dusko Josifovski agreed to postpone the final statement from defendant Mile Janakieski in the 2013 Centar protests trial today. The decision came after prosecutor Fatime Fetai dropped all charges against one of the defendants – former member of Parliament Daniela Rangelova, a move that comes as Rangelova has steadily moved to become closer to the ruling SDSM party.
The defense said that this constitutes a new case for the prosecution and that they will need to review it before having former Transportation Minister Janakieski give his defense. During the hearing today, defense attorneys also presented video of numerous violent protests organized by the SDSM party, in which there were no charges against the organizers, and charges against participants were quickly dropped.
SDSM, through loyalist prosecutors like Katica Janeva and Fetai, initiated this trial aimed against top VMRO-DPMNE officials, including former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and Janakieski, alleging that they organized a violent protest against SDSM members of the Centar municipal crisis. The loud protest ended with no injuries and little damage, but Fetai and Janeva prosecuted it as “violence”.
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