Trial over Extortion Case Continues

Prosecutor Burim Rustemi said at Tuesday’s hearing over the Extortion case that a friend of former Special Prosecutor Katica Janeva had bought an apartment that had been part of the property of a company from a Special Prosecutor’s Office (SPO) investigation. However, the witness didn’t find the behaviour of Janeva, who ordered to freeze the assets of suspected businessperson Tome Glavcev, except the flat bought by the friend, either. “Talking to Prosecutor Lile Stefanova after several months, I found out that the former MEPSO Director, Saso Vasilevski, who was a member of the Council of Public Prosecutors, too, had bought the flat. This information was not pleasant for me,” Rustemi added. While heading the investigation into the Postenska banka (Post Bank) case, Rustemi had no influences from Janeva, apart from when she asked for the passport to be given back to Glavcev. He, too, confirmed that Janeva had wanted to collect damage from the suspect in order for him not to go to jail, about which the Prosecutor had prepared a report. All of this took place after the opinion of the Supreme Court at the start of 2018, about which the SPO’s stand was that it was an amnesty similar to that granted by ex-President Gjorge Ivanov. The investigation into the Post Bank case is not part of the Extortion process, in which Janeva is charged with taking money to enable milder measures for a suspect in the Empire case. Both have now been given to prosecutors that would work on hem during the existence of the SPO. They’re now part of the state Prosecutor’s Office. The same day, VMRO-DPMNE once again said Judge Dobrila Kacarska should be imprisoned if the testimony of Lile Stefanova on Tuesday, when, as the opposition party said, she had said Kacarska had been directly calling Janeva to influence the investigations were true. According to VMRO-DPMNE, “all these people”, guided by SDSM leader Zoran Zaev, have destroyed the judicial system. “That’s why a law that will not amnesty criminals is needed,” the opposition party pointed out. On the other hand, SDSM said Rustemi’s testimony proved everyone needed justice right away. “VMRO-DPMNE and Hristijan Mickoski are the only ones who consider the adoption of the Public Prospector’s Office Draft Law to be very swift. Justice can no longer wait. Justice cannot and must not wait for VMRO-DPMNE any longer,” the ruling party said.