PPOC: Janeva abused Official Position to Influence “Empire” Case

The Head of the Basic Public Prosecution (PPO) Ljubomir Joveski and the Head of the Public Prosecution for Organised Crime (PPOC) Vilma Ruskovska held on Thursday a press conference in relation to the arrest of the Head of the Special Public Prosecution (SPO) Katica Janeva. Joveski revealed that PPOC has broadened the investigation over the “Racketeering” case, adding Janeva as a suspect. “In cooperation with the other two suspects from this case, Bojan Jovanovski and Zoran Mileski, back in 2018 Janeva abused her official position as Head of SPO in order to act out a milder decision against “Empire” case suspect, businessman Orce Kamcev, for whom back in 2018 the court changed the precaution measure against him from custody to house arrest, and later, in March 2019, temporarily returned to him his passport. For this, Kamcev paid to the first two suspects one million euros in cash, packed in a bag of the brand Louis Vuitton, which they took from his home on 20 February 2019, and shortly after that, they took another 500,000 euros from his wife. According to our investigation, in return for using her influence, Janeva gained illegal property worth around 5,000 euros, mostly in form of pieces of furniture and decorative objects,” Joveski revealed. PPOC Head Vilma Ruskovska said that there are no other persons arrested in relation to this case except Janeva, thus denying the claims by certain media that two Macedonian politicians have also been arrested on Wednesday. Both Joveski and Ruskovska pointed out that the “Racketeering” case is a criminal-legal affair, not a political one, and called upon the media to withstand themselves from publishing speculations or giving the case a political context. “We strongly deny the information promoted by some media that the money in question in this case have ended within home or foreign politicians,” Joveski underlined. Asked by reporters about the further functioning of SPO without Janeva, Joveski explained that in such a case the Council of Public Prosecutors is to appoint an acting Prosecutor in her position. From the Council of Public Prosecutors on the other hand, they report that there is no such regulation in the text of the Law on SPO.