VMRO-DPMNE Secretary General Igor Janusev said that the sentences handed in the April 2017 trial are the result of a “politically staged process” and the ultimate injustice.

It is clear that these draconian sentences are used in pre-election purposes. They are the result of Zoran Zaev’s fear and panic. This trial won’t help him, it will only push him further down. We were all able to witness how the Kacarska led judiciary and the Ruskoska led prosecutors are merely Zaev’s servants, don’t care about the evidence and are only concerned with passing down the sentences Zaev ordered from them. We are a country where killers of minors from the Smilkovsko lake case walk free, but the people from April 27th are sentenced as terrorists, Janusev said.