The Bulgarian state has exhausted all means in trying to influence Macedonia about the case of Spaska Mitrova, the jailed Macedonian with Bulgarian passport.

This was announced Friday by Bozhidar Dimitrov, Bulgaria's Minister without Portfolio in charge of Bulgarians abroad. The same statement was made almost simultaneously by the Deputy Foreign Minister, Marin Raykov.

These statements came after Macedonia's President, Gjorge Ivanov, refused to pardon Mitrova with a special letter to her family. After this became clear, the Bulgarian nationalist party VMRO demanded that Bulgaria veto Macedonia's NATO accession over human rights abuses.

Prof. Bozhidar Dimitrov said Friday that Bulgaria had been hoping that Mitrova would be pardoned on humanitarian grounds - since she suffers from breast cancer and has a young child.

"We cannot meddle into the justice and established norms of another state. We hoped that the humaneness principle would work out," Dimitrov said.

In his words, the last possible option for trying to influence Macedonia would be the Bulgarian Members of the European Parliament.

The next session of the EP is starting on September 14, and the Bulgarian MEPs are said to try to influence the Macedonian government on Mitrova's case through the various European Parliament Committees.

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