SKOPJE, May 23 (Xinhua) -- A court in Macedonia ruled Tuesday prison sentencing to nine people accused of participating in violent acts in the country's parliament on April 27, local media reported.
Nine men had pleaded guilty and expressed repentance over the violence exerted within the parliaments hall where more than 100 people were injured, including the head of the Social Democratic Union Zoran Zaev and head of the Alliance for Albanians, Ziadin Sela.
Skopje court imposed six-month suspended jail sentences on all of them.
Macedonian parliament was stormed on April 27 by a group of VMRO-DPMNE supporters after SDSM and Albanian parties MPs elected Talat Xhaferri as the new speaker.
More than 30 people were suspected of being involved in violent acts, but only nine of them were sent to the court.
Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry had suspended 16 police officers for their failure to prevent the violent storming of the parliament building by nationalist protesters.
The attack was strongly condemned by EU senior officials who said such acts hampered Macedonia's aspirations to join the NATO and the EU.
On the other hand, the representatives of SDSM have accused the MPs of VMRO-DPMNE of being directly involved in the violence in parliament, calling them as the initiators of those criminal acts.
Macedonia's SDSM leader Zoran Zaev is currently holding talks with ethnic Albanian parties to form a new government within ten days.
