Albanian Ethnics in Macedonia continued to protest Friday against arbitrary imprisonment sentences of Albanians by Macedonian courts.
Police prevented an planned protest by thousands ofAlbanians who gathered Friday for the third week in row in the Cayircanka district of Skopje to demonstrate in front of the Prime Ministry building and the court.
The protests begun as a reaction to the life sentences given to six albanian ethnics. “We want Justice” was the protestors' motto.
Alil Demiri, Afrim Ismailovic, Agim Ismailovic, Fejzi Aziri, Haki Aziri and Sami Ljuta were sentenced on June 30 with life imprisonment for killing five ethnic Macedonian fishermen in a lake in Skopje, in April 2012.
The court said that the murder was planned and that the accused had links with terrorist organizations, but the defendants fully deny the charges.
Almost a quarter of Macedonia’s population of 2.1 million are Albanian ethnics who agree with the protestors in their stance that the courts dismiss the facts of the case and make arbitrary decisions against Albanian ethnics.
The court decision has raised the tension in the multi-ethnic country, where in 2001 Macedonians andAlbanians fought an armed conflict which came to an end after the signing of the Ohrid Agreement, givingAlbanians more political rights.
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