SkopjeDiem Macedonia in English
On Sunday night, the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office for Prosecution of Organised Crime and Corruption arrested three people suspected of committing, from December 2019 to March 2021, the crime of criminal association, as well as the crime, in continuation, of disclosing a state secret.
In addition, two of the three people are suspected of obstruction of justice, while the third is suspected of unlawful obtaining and covering property. According to the authorities, the suspects, out of covetousness, got connected to the Dukjandzik criminal group, based in Grcec village, and, as members with a special role, instigated, in a premeditated manner, by the prime suspect in the Grcec case, would convey official information.
Two of the suspects, former chief inspectors, through the third suspect, the authorities explained on Monday, would convey and share information about procedures of importance to public security, as well as about security and intelligence activities of state organs.
“They would receive a reward for this unauthorised disclosure, with which they harmed the work and efficiency of investigation and prosecutor organs, and with which they would hamper or thwart evidence gathering,” it was also said.
According to the content of the investigation order, the suspects, together or individually, with the information they would share, hampered the proving in the following criminal procedures:
– over a criminal-legal event that took place in December 2019, each, individually, threatened that he or members of his family would be attacked again, influenced a damaged party a victim of an attempted murder-for-hire, who has since died, to change the statement given by him before police officers;
– over an August 2020 murder, the suspects shared significant information regarding the criminal group;
– in the second half of 2020, the suspects would share information about application of special investigation measures concerning a then criminalistic investigation, codenamed “Mountain”, which covered persons from this organised group. Then-Prosecutor Vilma Ruskovska held a press-conference after the operation had failed to see drug lords and drugs found, and promised that whoever ratted them out would someday be found. She would then claim that the snitch could in no way be part of the Prosecutor’s Office for Organised Crime;
– over a criminal-legal event that took place in September 2020, in which five were suspected of kidnapping, information about secured evidence, statements by witnesses, and held persons was shared;
– over a March 2021 double murder in Skopje, about which information was shared about who had been held in a police station, what activities were being taken, and which official persons were involved in the criminalistic investigation.
The authorities also said that the initial material evidence concerning the prime suspect indicated that he and members of his family had real estate, immovables, and savings deposits that greatly exceeded his legal incomes as a police officer.
