Election of Macedonian Judge in Strasbourg Causes Dismay

Macedonian Civil rights activists and judicial experts have called the election of Jovan Ilievski as Macedonia's judge in the European Court of Human Rights a serious blunder.

His many critics at home say he kept the prosecution system under government control and is unfit for the post.

"With this, Macedonian citizens are losing the last bastion of justice," Uranija Pirovska, the head of the Macedonian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, said.
 
The Helsinki Committee, along with 26 other Macedonian NGO, had urged the Parliamentary Assembly, PACE, which elects the judges in Strasbourg, to reject his candidacy.

They say the PACE should have stuck to its previous practice of not electing judges from countries embroiled in political crises like Macedonia.

They maintain that Ilievski, aged 58, played a dubious role in Macedonia's justice system, as well as mentioning his family ties to former Macedonian secret police chief Saso Mijalkov - who is now being investigated for high-level crime by the country's new Special Prosecution office.

Ilievski was elected last Tuesday with 106 votes from the PACE. His counter-candidate from Macedonia, Constitutional Court Judge Natasha Gaber-Damjanoska, won 86 votes.

This was despite being previously recommended by the PACE's commission on the judiciary, which in many cases is enough for election by the assembly.

"The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has elected Jovan Ilievski as judge to the Court in respect of 'the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia,'" the court announced on its website on October 12.

On Wednesday, Ilievski dismissed allegations that his election was lobbied by the ruling VMRO DPMNE party, and said he was sorry that some media...