The Republic of Greece will have to pay compensation of 35,000 euros to Vinozito, political party of the Macedonians in this country, for not protecting them from the violence 10 years ago, the European Human Rights Court decided. The Court also found Greece guilty of violating Articles 6 and 11 of the Human Rights Convention.

This verdict was brought after Vinozito raised a court procedure for an incident that occurred in year 1995 when the party office in the town of Lerin, Greece, was burned down.
Vinozito leader Pavlos Voskopoulos said yesterday that the European Court righted the wrong of the Greek judicial organs, which did not punish the attackers.

"This is our big victory, because it became clear that violence was carried out then".

"The Greek judicial authorities rejected all our appeals for the perpetrators to be punished. Now the truth has come out in the open," Voskopoulos stated yesterday.

The Court also decided that compensation of 8,000 euros, plus 800 euros for expenses, should be paid to OMO Ilinden Chairman Jordan Kostadinov Ivanov. This case was led following the charges that OMO Ilinden and Ivanov raised against the state of Bulgaria for not allowing OMO Ilinden's members and followers to hold peaceful protests in the period between years 1998 till 2003. The Court found that Bulgaria violated Article 11 of the Convention for Protection of the Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

The Court also brought a positive sentence as regards the charges raised by OMO Ilinden-Pirin, which sued the state of Bulgaria for the decision brought by this country's Constitutional Court in February year 2000 with which it cancelled this party. With a unanimous decision, the Court ordered Bulgaria to pay 6,000 euros compensation. The Court did not find any elements that this party intends to separate part of Bulgaria's territory. The Court established that Bulgaria violated Article 11 of the Convention in this case, as well.