Skopje, 16 February 2023 (MIA) - Vlatko Ilievski, the lawyer who represents the defendants and the sentenced persons before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) said Thursday he was surprised by the amount of time it took the court to declare itself on the complaint regarding the annulled pardon by former president Gjorge Ivanov. 

"I am surprised that it took the Strasbourg court five-and-a-half years to make this decision. It should have said sooner that the complaints were inadmissible or submitted too early. Nevertheless, what is important is that there is no room for celebration by the Government because this does not mean that the pardon has been declared invalid. Therefore, when deciding on these cases in the second and third instance, domestic courts should consider the arguments that have been included in the applications," Ilievski told Fokus.

ECHR has found the applicants' complaints over the 2016 annulled pardon of former president Ivanov as inadmissible due to the fat that domestic remedies were not exhausted.