Four former officials from North Macedonia’s ruling party VMRO-DPMNE on Thursday were released by a court after being convicted for organizing a violent attack on the Parliament in 2017.

Trajko Veljanovksi, a former parliamentary speaker, along with Spiro Ristovski and Mile Janakieski, both former cabinet ministers, and Vladimir Atanasovski, a former head of national security, had all received sentences of six to six-and-a-half years for endangering constitutional order and security. For their release, the court argued that they were under the 2018 amnesty law relevant to the case.

The amnesty law adopted in December 2018 granted a general amnesty to some participants in the attacks but identified certain exceptions. According to Articles 1(3) and (4), the amnesty does not apply to individuals suspected of planning or organizing the events in Parliament. The law also excludes those who used physical force, carried unauthorized weapons or explosives, acted under false identities, or abused their official powers in committing acts of terrorism against the constitutional order.

At the time of the amnesty law passage, the then-Prime Minister Zoran Zaev from LSDM was accused of trading the rule of law for the opposition votes of VMRO-DPMNE to implement the agreement with Greece over the name issue.

The 2017 attack marked the culmination of a two-year political crisis in North Macedonia. This period saw the resignation and escape of former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, the election as Prime Minister of Zoran Zaev, leader of the social-democratic LSDM, and the election of Talat Xhaferri, the first ethnic Albanian, as Speaker of the Parliament.

In response to Xhaferri’s election, hundreds of violent protesters stormed the parliament, furious over his election, resulting in dozens of injuries, with the most severe attack targeting Zijadin Sela, the leader of one of the main ethnic Albanian parties at the time.