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Judge Daniela Aleksovska Stojanovska was dismissed today from the taskforce set up by the Justice Ministry to prepare changes in the Criminal Code. The move comes after she gave an extremely lenient sentence to 20 year old drug dealer Vaso Jovanov, sending him to a juvenile corrections facility. Last week, Jovanov killed 22 year old designer Frosina Kulakova, while he was drunkenly speeding through downtown Skopje.
Aleksandar Kambovski, head of the Judicial Council, said that the sentence will be reviewed, and if violations are found, the judge could face additional penalties. The Kulakov family is focusing its demands on the judge, insisting that their daughter would be alive today if Aleksovska did her job.
Meanwhile, chief state prosecutor Ljupco Kocevski said that the prosecutors will go after Jovanov with charges of premeditation, that should ensure the maximum sentence allowed by the law of about 20 years in prison.
The ruling coalition of VMRO-DPMNE, VLEN and ZNAM is opening debate in Parliament on introducing stricter traffic laws and announced that experts, civic organizations and institutions will be included in the process. The party notes that judge Aleksovska was assigned one of the numerous politically driven cases aimed against the party and its officials under the Zaev regime. “Judge Daniela Aleksovska Stojanovska handed down draconian sentences in a staged trial against VMRO-DPMNE, while at the same time she spared a person caught with a significant quantity of drugs from prison, leading to a murder on the streets of Skopje less than a year later. The home of her father in Rankovce was turned into an SDSM party office, which proves that the judge is part of the SDSM party”, said VMRO-DPMNE.
Meanwhile, former SDSM party leader Radmila Sekerinska issued a statement denying her alleged involvement with the release of the drug dealer from prison. The allegation was made by a well known muckraking journalist who did not submit evidence for his claims. “I responsibly say that I have never been in contact with any of the persons that are being mentioned, I don’t know them, the culprit, his father or the judge that was assigned to his case”, said Sekerinska, who was recently named Deputy Secretary General of NATO.
