As schools and businesses close because of the coronavirus and people are advised to avoid large gatherings affecting the electoral campaign, there is one area where the SDSM led Government is not proposing any steps that would limit the risk of spreading the virus – the judiciary. SDSM and its leader Zoran Zaev have grabbed power using dozens of politically motivated trials aimed against the opposition VMRO-DPMNE party, and many of them are still on-going in the Skopje courthouse. Defendants in some of the trials asked that the hearings are postponed and witnesses have refused to show up, after it was revealed that people involved in the hearings were in self-isolation, but the Government insists that the courthouse continues doing business as usual.

Three judges of the Skopje court are currently in self-isolation after they traveled to countries with greater concentrations of coronavirus cases, while some of the judges are refusing to go to work because they are parents of minor children. But two scandalous, nearly identical press release were issued today to insist that the trials will continue. One of them was written by the Justice Ministry, as the Healthcare Ministry gave up on its competence and passed the baton to Justice Minister Renata Deskoska. This press release insists that it “recommends the trials continue, with an increased level of caution being paid – we recommend that the trials which are of greater public interest continue with reduced presence of the public”.

The other press release came from the Judicial Council, which is supposed to be an independent institution, separate from the ruling SDSM party and the Justice Ministry. But their press release is worded nearly identically to that of the Justice Ministry. This shows clear coordination between the institutions and subordination of the Judicial Council to the political interests of the ruling party.