VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski will have a rare meeting with President Stevo Pendarovski today, to discuss the case of the political prisoners from the April 27th trial.

Pendarovski agreed with Mickoski that the defendants are sentenced under unreasonable charges – of terrorism. The meeting comes ten days after a major protest in downtown Skopje, supported by VMRO-DPMNE, which demands a new trial in the case and realistic charges for the defendants.

We do not ask for mercy. We ask that they are charged for what they did, not for what they didn’t do, the opposition party said in a press release.

Sixteen protesters and Interior Ministry officials were sentenced over the 2017 storming of the Parliament. The Zaev regime used the trial to blackmail three members of Parliament, who were also charged, to vote in favor of the imposed name change. The members of Parliament were pardoned, but the mere protesters remain in prison, with long sentences.