A new hearing will be held in the 2012 Good Friday massacre trial today, where prosecutors are expected to present illegally intercepted text messages from Government officials as evidence.

The trial is still led by prosecutors from the disgraced Special Prosecutor’s Office and the presentation of the wiretaps and text messages the SPO has was supposed to be the end of the years long agony for the families. Prime Minister Zoran Zaev has long teased the idea that he has evidence which will throw a completely new light on the murder of the four boys and one man near Smilkovsko lake, on the eve of Good Friday 2012. The victims were Kire Trickovski, Filip Slavkovski, Cvetanco Ackovski, Aleksandar Nakevski (aged between 18 and 21) and Borce Stefanovski (45). A group of ethnic Albanian Islamists were charged with the massacre, apparently carried out with the purpose of sparking a religious war. Two of the shooters fled to Kosovo and one was held by the police along with a number of accomplices.

Their life sentences were overturned based on the claims of new evidence from Zaev. Zaev’s claims prompted parties that represent ethnic Albanians to demand the release of the suspected murderers, and Zaev obliged shortly after assuming power. His allegations surrounding the massacre helped Zaev prevent a possible coalition deal between the conservative VMRO-DPMNE party and the ethnic Albanian parties following the 2016 general elections. But the first hearing when the tapes were presented, held last month, contained no new leads or evidence. It only contributed to the growing burden of evidence that the wiretaps Zaev was using since 2015 to grab power have been modified, taken out of context or otherwise manipulated.