SDSM has said a new scandal involving security services is on the horizon. At a press-conference on Tuesday, the opposition party’s Spokesperson, Bogdanka Kuzeska, asked whether Aleksandar Janev met criteria to serve as Public Security Bureau Director.
According to some media reports, “an anonymous petition has been filed over grounded suspicion concerning Janev’s Master’s degree at Skopje University”.
“This degree is among the fundamental legal conditions for him to be able to be appointed Bureau Director. As has been reported, his official biography, posted on the Interior Ministry’s website, doesn’t include the exact date when he got the degree. There aren’t any data on publicly defending a Master’s dissertation on the Skopje University’s website either. Not even a record in the electronic systems of the University or the Education Ministry to check plagiarism can be found. All of this is mandatory according to the law”, Kuzeska stressed.
Also, she stated that the Law on Scientific-Research Activity said every Master’s dissertation had to be entered into the plagiarism check system at least 30 days before it was defended. Janev was appointed on 28 June 2024.
“Is it true that the system didn’t work precisely in this period? These suspicions and this case are opening serious questions that have to be answered. Did the government led by VMRO-DPMNE appoint as the head of the Bureau a person that doesn’t meet legal conditions? Is it about falsification of documents for party interests? Why is the Interior Ministry silent about these public suspicions? SDSM demands answers to these questions, as well as an urgent investigation by the Public Prosecutor’s Office”, Kuzeska noted.
In response, however, VMRO-DPMNE said Janev had been elected legally, adding that SDSM was afraid of the fight against corruption and crime.