Leading journalist Dragan Pavlovik Latas and his two brothers Srgan and Zvezdan Pavlovik were released from all charges in one of the cases initiated by the Special Prosecutor’s Office.

Latas is an outspoken critic of the Zaev regime and the forced name change, who famously got Zaev confused to the point he forgot his own name during a must-see interview at the peak of the political crisis in 2016.

The SPO went after Latas and several other people in the best watched Sitel TV where he was editor in chief, with a number of criminal charges which eventually pressured him off the air.

He and his brothers were charged for building three houses in a village outside of Skopje, allegedly without the proper construction permits – which is a widespread practice in Macedonia. The SPO presented the case as a high crime and demanded lengthy prison sentences and seizure of the houses. The court found that the SPO did not prove its case.

His lawyer protested earlier this week after a number of media outlets tied to the Government reported on the details of prosecution’s case while the charges were still being read in court, a situation which the defense saw as a clear attempt to use the trial to score political points.