On Wednesday, VMRO-DPMNE MP Mile Lefkov held a press conference at which he presented a photo saying it showed Aleksandar Nikolov (the person arrested in a Strumica fire case) accompanying Zoran Zaev while the then-SDSM leader had been handing over the wiretapped materials (so-called bombs) to the now-defunct Special Prosecutor’s Office (SPO).
“Zaev is lying when he says that A.N. wasn’t his driver. This photo shows exactly that the arsonist was part of Zaev’s circle when he was handing over the “bombs” to the SPO and when, according to statements by people close to him, he surrounded himself only with people of trust. Considering A.N. was a person of trust when it comes to Zaev and a person of highest trust, we cannot help but ask: Upon whose instruction was he acting now when he was causing the fires? Zaev’s driver and, consequently, SDS[M], have been caught red-handed”, he pointed out, asking whether there was someone in the country that believed that “Zaev’s driver” had acted on his own.
SDSM, however, refuted the accusations, saying the person in the photo was a man whose last name was Barabanovski.
“Lefkov is intentionally planting false information to create blame and defocus the public from the incompetence and failure of the government to deal with the real fires and crises”, it added.
Several hours later, in another press-release, the opposition party said VMRO-DPMNE had removed the photo from its website.
“That proves they’ve been caught in a lie”, it added.
SDSM will file a defamation lawsuit and expects prosecutors to urgently react over the “fake news”.