Zoran Zaev’s comment of assurances to a group of ethnic Albanians who confronted him in Tirana yesterday, rased the issue of whether he will push the courts to release the terrorist group which attacked Kumanovo in 2015, killing eight Macedonian police officers.
Of the Albanian group which carried out the attack, 33 are held in Macedonian prisons. A group of protesters confronted Zaev in Tirana yesterday, demanding their release and threatening Zaev that they will stage protests ahead of the April 2020 elections if he doesn’t deliver. The Tanjug news agency reports that Zaev replied that protests “will not be necessary, all will be well”.
Zaev was himself raising doubt in the trial that was conducted after the bloody attack. He famously visited Kumanovo after the two days long battle, not to encourage the police officers, but to take pictures with the local Albanian citizens, and his propaganda machine was spreading all sorts of conspiracy theories about the attack, blaming it on the then VMRO-DPMNE led Government. This prompted Albanian parties to demand an amnesty or a release for the Kumanovo group, labeling them victims or Albanian national heroes. This request, and the demand for release of the group of Albanian Islamists which carried out the 2012 Good Friday massacre, made their way to the Tirana Platform of the Albanian parties, and Zaev already fulfilled the latter request.
The group practically runs the Sutka prison near Skopje. Earlier this year they attacked two former VMRO-DPMNE ministers who were detained as part of Zaev’s campaign of political persecution. The group then issued political threats aimed at VMRO-DPMNE and in support of the SDSM presidential candidate Stevo Pendarovski.
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