SkopjeDiem Macedonia in English
On Tuesday, the day after his backlisting by the US, Skopje Court of Appeals Judge Enver Bexheti didn’t show up for work because he took days off, the Court has confirmed.
Though the State Department’s press-release doesn’t specifically state which case it’s about, the part of the text reading that he and ex-Deputy PM Artan Grubi accepted “bribes to undermine judicial processes tied to the criminal conviction” of former Security and Counterintelligence Administration head Saso Mijalkov suggests that it’s about the Target-Fortress process, which concerns last decade’s wiretapping scandal, which was kept in a drawer by Bexheti, which, together with last year’s Criminal Code changes, resulted in the statute of limitations over a part of the case expiring.
Over the matter, in January of last year, the Judicial Council formed a commission that confirmed that Bexheti had intentionally dragged out the case. However, his punishment consisted only of him being paid 80% of his salary over a six-month period.
Bexheti was also referred to as the main reason for the 2023 escalations within the Council in April of 2023, when, instead of an initiative to initiate disciplinary proceedings against the Judge, Vesna Dameva was scandalously dismissed as head of the body, on the basis of a proposal from then-Deputy President Selim Ademi, who’s associated with DUI.
It remains uncertain whether the Council, the majority of whose members have continued to hold the same position since last year, will now, following the designation, be able to open a new procedure against Bexheti. Kanal 5 asked Deputy President Hanif Zendeli that question.
“The body will take all legal measures, after which it will inform the public,” he said, without being specific.
