Skopje, 16 February 2023 (MIA) - The decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) is a big victory and an enormous success for the country. The Macedonian team gave its best and won this exceptionally complex case, said Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski on the ECHR decision to declare the complaint regarding the annulled pardon of former president Gjorge Ivanov as inadmissible.

"Let me express my deep gratitude for their hard work in the past period. The decision in the state's favor declares the applicants' complaints inadmissible, including in the part of the alleged pardons. The Government's arguments have been fully considered by the Strasbourg court," PM Kovachevski told reporters.

According to him, it is important that ECHR did not find any violation of the European Convention on Human Rights.

"This is a victory of the country, the justice and the judicial system. The court's decision finds the applicants' complaints inadmissible because domestic remedies were not exhausted. We are a Council of Europe member-state. Our commitment to the rule of law, the Convention and its values is indisputable. As a country negotiating for full-fledged EU membership, the rule of law is one of our top priorities," said Kovachevski.

Considering the procedure is still ongoing before domestic courts, the PM refrained from further comments, "to avoid any misunderstanding and for it not to be interpreted as influence on the course of the process."

ECHR has rejected the complaint over the 2016 annulled pardon of former president Gjorge Ivanov as unfounded. The court's decision is available at this link.

The pardon included 56 suspects and sentenced persons in multiple cases of the Special Prosecutor's Office (SPO), including former PM Nikola Gruevski, former ministers Mile Janakieski and Gordana Jankuloska, former secret police chief Sasho Mijalkov and other government officials.

Back in April 2016, the Constitutional Court cancelled the 2009 changes to the law, thus giving the President the option to give pardon without carrying out the pardoning procedure. Right after the Constitutional Court decision, then-president Ivanov decided to pardon the VMRO-DPMNE officials, which resulted in a public outcry and mass protests. Afterwards, the Law on Pardoning was amended and the pardons were annulled.