President Gordana Siljanovska – Davkova convened a meeting of the Commission tasked with presidential pardons, after a notorious mobster was put on the list that the President approved earlier this week.

The list of pardons in honor of October 23rd, the day of the founding of VMRO, included Akif Ravmanovski, member of the Baron group – one of the most dangerous gangs of the Albanian mafia in Skopje. The day after his release, police apprehended Ravmanovski on an attempted murder charge of a mobster rival. President Siljanovska cut short his sentence of 1 year and three months in prison on a weapons charge. The process of pardons goes through the Justice Ministry and then a Commission that is made up of legal and medical experts.

Public outrage followed, as the office of the President is under pressure to reveal who allowed Ravmanovski’s name to be put on the list and if the President was informed about his background when she signed the order. During the election campaign, Siljanovska criticized her predecessor Stevo Pendarovski for his own move to release a similar mobster from prison, and the long list of meetings Pendarovski had with Albanian mafia structures, who helped with his election in 2019. But precisely because she was outspoken on the issue, President Siljanovska is now receiving strong criticism for the pardons she handed.