Macedonian Renegade Priest Awaits Release

Skopje's 'Idrizovo' prison | Photo by: Balkan Insight

A lawyer for the controversial cleric said he hoped his client might be released as early as Monday after a court in the central town of Veles allowed a re-trial of his case and the prosecution did not object.

“He should be released from Idrizovo [the Skopje prison where he is detained] and allowed to prove his innocence as a free man after which we will determine his further defence,” Vasko Georgiev said.

Macedonian police arrested Vrasniskovski last Monday at the Medzitlija border crossing with Greece after he turned himself in.

Vraniskovski was wanted for skipping a two-and-a-half-year jail sentence handed down in absentia in October 2009 for embezzling money while serving as a cleric in Macedonia. The latest court decision means the sentence is annulled.

The fact that he willingly approached the Macedonian authorities was decisive in the court's decision to grant him re-trial.
 
His Serbian and Macedonian passports are now in police hands, serving as a guarantee that he will not flee.

For almost a decade Vraniskovski has been the focus of a dispute between the Macedonian Orthodox Church and its Serbian counterpart, which does not recognize its ecclesiastical independence.

Macedonian courts accused Vraniskovski of inciting religious and racial hatred by setting up a parallel Orthodox Church in Macedonia, loyal to Serbia, later called the Ohrid Archdiocese.

The Macedonian Church saw this as a Serbian attempt to undermine its authority while the Serbian Orthosox Church complained that Macedonia was persecuting one of its priests. Macedonia has refused to officially register Vraniskovski’s denomination.

The Serbian Orthodox Church, which has close ties with other Orthodox churches, has blocked the recognition of the Macedonian Church by other Orthodox churches ever since it declared "autocephaly", or independence, in the late 1960s.

On Friday, visiting Serbian President Boris Tadic told Macedonian media that the Vraniskovski case is a church issue and that politics should rather stay away from it.