Prosecutor Vilma Ruskoska, who has faced major criticism over the partisan way in which she filed charges in the April 2017 Parliament incident case, says that she will not allow protest activists Boris Damovski, Bogdan Ilievski, Vlado Jovanovski and Igor Durlovski to receive amnesty.

Ruskoska does see, how ever, amnesty for the five members of Parliament from VMRO-DPMNE who were charged by her. Three of them switched party allegiance and supported opening of the process to rename Macedonia, for which they were released from detention and then negotiated the amnesty law. The four activists named here are director Damovski, actor Jovanovski, opera singer Durlovski and youth protester Ilievski, who led peaceful rallies for months, before the vote in the Parliament provoked protesters to enter the building and some of them attacked SDSM and Alliance of Albanians members of Parliament.

The prosecutor, who was given this case after joining protests organized by the now ruling SDSM party, will have a say in the process of approving the requests for amnesty which the defendants will have to submit. The law was broadly criticized, including by former protest colleagues of Ruskoska, for offering selective amnesty, and being seemingly tailored for the needs of the members of Parliament whose votes are necessary to rename the country.