We have proper, European style prisons in Macedonia, but we also have prisons where the managers acted in the mannerr of Louis XIV, treating prisoners as if they were their private property, said Aleksandar Pandov, head of the bureau tasked with managing the prisons in Macedonia.

Speaking to the press in Stip, Pandov said that the Idrizovo prison in Skopje houses as many prisoners as all other prisons combined. In Idrizovo, about half of the facilities have been fully renovated, but half remain substandard. Pandov announced significant investments and improvements coming to the prison in the next four years.

Regarding the recent release of some of the political prisoners from the period of Zaev’s regime, Pandov said that he is bound to release prisoners who present proper medical documentation and show that they have an acute illness that needs to be treated outside of the penal system.