MHRMI Demands the Immediate Arrest of Zoran Zaev

Macedonian Human Rights Movement International (MHRMI) demands the immediate arrest of Zoran Zaev, the US-installed “Prime Minister” of the former regime in the Republic of Macedonia, and the arrest of all relevant regime officials.

Zaev was installed by the United States in order to force through the highly derogatory name "North Macedonia" in contravention of the Macedonian constitution, parliamentary rules, Macedonian and international law, and multiple international human rights conventions. Full details are available here in MHRMI’s press release demanding the immediate nullification of the illegal “Prespa Agreement” and the return of Macedonia’s name.

MHRMI will focus on the laws broken by Zaev et al. (see below) which, under the Macedonian criminal code, necessitate their immediate, and long overdue, arrest.

The United States and the regime fully controlled the judiciary in Macedonia during the regime’s reign – see our report here. Regardless, the Public Prosecutor should have – as mandated by Macedonian law – arrested Zaev et al.

Upon removal of the regime as a result of elections earlier this year and, in theory, removal of pressures from the regime/USA, the Public Prosecutor still has not acted. Further, MHRMI demands that the Ministry of Interior submit the multiple, public investigations of the regime’s misconduct to the Public Prosecutor, thus instigating an investigation by the Public Prosecutor.

The name change was imposed on Macedonia by the United States, aiding Greece's quest to eradicate the existence of Macedonians' name, ethnic identity, culture, and history (the very basis of the "Prespa Agreement") and in particular to cover up the egregious human rights abuses that Greece has committed against its indigenous ethnic Macedonian population since it annexed Aegean Macedonia in 1913. The United States aided and abetted Greece in exchange for Greece lifting its veto of Macedonia's US-imposed NATO membership bid, and to further cement US hegemony in the region. The US installed the Zoran Zaev regime in 2016/2017 setting in motion the forced name change and brutal suppression of dissent amid mass human rights violations against Macedonians.

Listed below are several of the laws broken by Zaev et al., with the full list of criminal charges brought against them by Macedonian Human Rights Movement International and the World Macedonian Congress in 2018 available in Macedonian here.

Macedonian Criminal Code

• Article 178 – Offending the reputation of the Republic of Macedonia: A person, who with the intention to ridicule shall publicly make a mockery of the Republic of Macedonia, its flag, arm or anthem, shall be punished with imprisonment of three months to three years.

• Article 179 – Ridiculing the Macedonian people and the ethnicities: A person, who with the intention to ridicule shall publicly make a mockery of the Macedonian people and the ethnicities, shall be punished with imprisonment of three months to three years.

• Article 305 – High treason: A person who, by using force or serious threat, tries to change the constitutional system of the Republic of Macedonia, or to bring down the highest state authorities, shall be punished with imprisonment of at least five years.

• Article 308 – Endangering independence: A citizen of the Republic of Macedonia, who places the Republic of Macedonia in a position of subordination or dependence in relation to some other country, shall be punished with imprisonment of at least five years.

• Article 313 – Terrorist endangerment of the constitutional order and security. A person who, with the intention of endangering the constitutional system or the security of the Republic of Macedonia, causes or seriously threatens to cause an explosion, fire, flood, or some other generally dangerous act or act of violence, creating a sense of insecurity or fear among the citizens, shall be punished with imprisonment of at least ten years.

• Article 315 – Sabotage: A person who, when performing his work duty, with the intention of endangering the constitutional system or the security of the Republic of Macedonia, in a covered up, deceitful or some other way, causes a significant damage to a state authority, institution or legal entity where he works, or to some other state authority, institution or legal entity, shall be punished with imprisonment of at least four years.

• Article 324 – Association for the purpose of hostile activity: One that makes conspiracy, gang, group or other association of people or organization for performing crimes stipulated in the articles 305 through 311, 312, 313, 314, 315, 321 and 322, paragraph (2), shall be sentenced with imprisonment of at least four years.

• Article 353 – Abuse of official position and authority: An official person who, by using his official position or authorization, by exceeding the limits of his official authorization, or by not performing his official duty, acquires for himself or for another some kind of benefit, or causes damage to another, shall be punished with imprisonment of six months to three years.

• Article 392 – Autocracy: A person who autocratically procures some right of his own, or a right which he considers belongs to him, by using force or a serious threat to attack the life and body, shall be punished with a fine, or with imprisonment of six months to three years.

• Article 403 – Genocide: A person who with the intention of complete or partial destruction of some national, ethnic, racial or religious group, orders the murder or infliction of serious body injuries, or serious harm to the physical or mental health of members of a group, or forced resettlement of population, or to place the group under such living conditions as to bring about the complete or partial extermination of the group, or to apply measures that prevent birth among the members of the group, or to perform forced moving of the children to some other group, or a person who with the same intention, commits some of the above mentioned crimes, shall be punished with imprisonment of at least ten years, or with life imprisonment.

• Article 403a – Crimes Against Humanity: On who, with an intention for systematic destruction of civil population, order committing murders, severe body injuries, physical extermination, slavery, deportation or forced displacement of the population, imprisonment or other type of depriving of freedom against the international law, torture, rape, sexual exploitation or slavery, forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, forced sterilization or any other type of severe sexual violence, exile based on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious or gender basis, forced taking away and disappearing of persons, discrimination and separation based on racial, national, ethnic, political, cultural or other basis and other non-humane acts with deliberate causing physical or psychical suffer, or one that will commit some of the stipulated crimes with the same intention, shall be sentenced with imprisonment of at least ten years or life sentence.

The clear violation of the Macedonian criminal code by Zaev et al. are entrenched in – and the raison d'être – of the "Prespa Agreement", specifically mandating Macedonia’s obedience and subordination to Greece. Further, mass human rights violations occurred, and continue to occur, as a result of the imposed “Prespa Agreement” and the actions of Zaev et al. Failure to act by the Public Prosecutor and Ministry of Interior will indicate their complicity.

Macedonian Human Rights Movement International (MHRMI) has been active on human and national rights issues for Macedonians and other oppressed peoples since 1986. MHRMI demands respect for Macedonia's name, identity and human rights for oppressed Macedonians in the Balkans. For more information: 1-416-850-7125, info@mhrmi.org, mhrmi.org, twitter.com/mhrmi, facebook.com/mhrmi, instagram.com/MacedonianHumanRights #OurNameIsMacedonia