President Stevo Pendarovski pardoned Abduljfeta Alimi, one of the defendants in the April 27th trial.

Alimi was member of the Parliament’s security detail, and was charged along with former Interior Minister Mitko Cavkov and police commanders, for not doing enough to prevent the storming of the Parliament in 2017. He is the only ethnic Albanian among the defendants and the only one to be pardoned so far, even though Pendarovski agreed that the defendants should not have been tried for “terrorism”.

The trial is grossly politicized and was used to blackmail three members of Parliament into voting for the imposed name change. Protest organizers were also pardoned, leaving only Cavkov, several police officers and then mere protesters in prison, serving extremely long sentences.

The release of Alimi was requested by Ziadin sela, leader of the Alliance of Albanians, who said that Alimi tried to protect him during the severe beating – which was the worst incident of the evening.