Macedonia’s government proposed to the Parliament amendments to the Criminal Law by which the jail sentences for abuse of office and official competencies are decreased.

According to the proposal, the provisions in Article 353 of the Criminal Law, which stipulate a jail sentence of three to five years, are replaced with a sentence of one to four years. Setting the upper limit of a jail sentence provides for an even faster application of the statute of limitations for these crimes, which is already a practice in all former cases involving former government officials.

“Under the cover of the so-called “European flag” system (faster adoption of EU-related laws), the government, in fact, proposes a faster statute of limitation. Hence, under the guises of the “European flag”, they are cementing the officials’ impunity. Such abuse of everything “European” will enter the curriculum of many legal educational institutions! How did we get from “No Justice, No Peace” to “No Punishment, No Accountability”?, Nikola Dimitrov, former MoFA and Vice-PM in the previous government led by Zoran Zaev and active participant in the so-called “Motley Revolution” (their main motto was “No Justice, No Peace”), which brought down VMRO-DPMNE government by asking for “more justice and rule of law”.