Zivko Pejkovski

Boskoski, who has spent five years in jail for the illegal financing of his political campaign, became eligible for early release from Tuesday on the basis of good behaviour. 

But it remained unclear if he would get out of jail on time to join the campaign for the pre-term parliamentary elections on June 5, as his release depends on the prison governor's approval.

Amid a heavy police presence in a Skopje courtroom full of friends and relatives of the six alleged ethnic Albanian Muslim extremists who were sentenced to life in prison for terrorism over the killings, judge Liljana Shopova postponed the public hearing until September 11, citing "unfulfilled legal conditions".