SkopjeDiem Macedonia in English
On Wednesday (12 February), the Constitutional Court will debate the initiative over the 2023 Criminal Court changes filed by Democratic Union leader Pavle Trajanov.
According to him, however, the session will be belated because the Court should have by now introduced a temporary measure ex officio instead of, as he pointed out on Monday, allowing numerous officials to save themselves despite crimes committed by them. So far, around 800 people have benefited from the changes, he stressed.
“Let the Court debate, let it make a decision not to abolish the changes, but rather to annul them in order for them not to be in force in the future. However, I don’t believe there will be such a decision”, he underlined.
A Justice Ministry working group has worked on new changes aiming to, as it told Kanal 5, overcome the harmful consequences of the 2023 changes.
“Reintroducing Articles 353, 353-c, and 354 will enable more efficient implementation of the law against corruption and abuse of official position, especially in situations when current laws don’t provide legal grounds that are sufficiently strong to penalise such acts. Transparency and legal certainty regarding accountability of public servants and officials”, the institution said.
The draft-changes are treated as a temporary solution until the adoption of the completely new code, which should be fully aligned with the EU acquis, especially in the area of combatting organised crime and corruption.
