VMRO-DPMNE warned that SDSM is setting violent criminals free ahead of the October 15th municipal elections, which might lead to election day violence or voter intimidation promoted by SDSM leader and Prime Minister Zoran Zaev.
"Zaev is setting criminals free and the SD led Government is becoming synonymous with banditism and crime. People with criminal records are being put in action ahead of the elections. Zaev knows that he will lose and he is now focusing on non-democratic methods which lead to corruption and destruction of the democratic election framework", VMRO-DPMNE said in a press release.
The conservative party named the recent early releases of Agim Krasniqi and Bajrush Sejdiu from prison and the proposal of an amnesty law which might lead to even broader releases of prisoners. Krasiniqi was detained in 2008, following the violent general elections in which several people were killed in clashes between parties that represent ethnic Albanians. Also known for threatening to attack the capital Skopje from the western village of Kondovo where he lives in 2005, Krasniqi was welcomed as a hero back in Kondovo.
Sejdiu was sentenced to 12 years in prison for running a cigarette smuggling business out of the city of Kumanovo, which, besides Skopje, is expected to be one of the main election day prizes where ethnic Albanian votes can make a difference in the final outcome. Sejdiu was sentenced also for being part of a group which brought publicly owned companies into his ownership, in a number of deals valued at 60 million EUR and is considered an important figure in Kumanovo given his net worth. His dramatic attempt to flee to Kosovo after he was temporarily released from detention in 2011 led to the dismissal of a top Appeals Court judge at the time. Now Sejdiu, like Krasniqi, is released on a 20 days break due to his worsening health.
