Commenting on today’s decision of the Court in Strasbourg, lawyer Vlatko Ilievski emphasizes that it is a decision and not a ruling and that means that the court did not decide on the merits based on the findings in the application, but that it was premature.

He asks why it took the court five and a half years to decide that it was premature?

There is no room for triumphalism in the Government. This does not mean that the pardons are invalid and void, but that the time has not yet come to make a decision and that the court leaves it up to the courts in Macedonia to first weigh in on the validity of the arguments, Ilievski told “Republika”.

This essentially means that at the moment when the Supreme Court states its position on the verdicts, the convicted could turn to Strasbourg again.