Closing Arguments over Thaler 2 Case

Prosecutor Ljubomir Lape, in the closing arguments over the Thaler 2 case on Tuesday, said former PM Nikola Gruevski and ex-Government Secretary General Kiril Bozinovski should be found guilty. He also sought taking away of VMRO-DPMNE’s seat. Lape’s stand is that the two took activities for the party to get a new party seat unlawfully. In addition, Lape pointed out that the two had treated VMRO-DPMNE as any trade entity. According to him, Gruevski and Bozinovski were the ones that defined the content of the public call, not the party organs. As the Prosecutor stressed, the publishing of the public call left room for illegal funding of VMRO-DPMNE and getting ownership of property, which, according to the law, the party couldn’t even acquire. Gruevski and Bozinovski are charged with abuse of official position because they enabled DG Beton AD Skopje to build the seat even though the legal entity, during the provision of the service, had signed deals for public procurements with state organs and public institutors or enterprises in contradiction with the Law on Political Parties, Law on Funding of Political Parties, and Law on Obligations. In contradiction withe regulations, the defendants obtained significant property gain for VMRO-DPMNE of 8,246,576 euros.