Police detain North Macedonia's former speaker of parliament

SKOPJE - The police in North Macedonia detained on Wednesday the former parliament speaker Trajko Veljanovski and two former ministers, Spiro Ristovski and Mile Janakievski, here upon an order of the Public Prosecution Office for suspicion of involvement in the violence events on April 27, 2017.

Late Wednesday, the Public Prosecution Office in North Macedonia declared that five persons in total are suspected of organizing events and of committing the crime of "endangerment of the constitutional order and security."

"The suspects used party structures and enabled continual shrinking of the number of police officers at the protests. On April 27 (2017), they organized the mass entry of people in the parliament and hired individuals to commit violent acts," read the press release.

Their arrest relates to the violent events occurred on April 27, 2017 in the then Macedonian parliament where protesters stormed in and used violence against many of the former opposition members of parliament.