English
One of the largest politically motivated cases initiated by the Special Prosecutor’s Office was thrown out by the Skopje Criminal Court today. The so-called “Talir” case alleged irregularities in the construction of the offices of the VMRO-DPMNE party, which has been placed under court ordered freeze for over a decade.
Judge Daniela Aleksovska – Stojanovska also found former Prime Minister and VMRO leader Nikola Gruevski not guilty in this case. This was one of the dozen cases launched by the SPO against Gruevski that were used to remove him from power and force a name change of the country, with Gruevski receiving political asylum in Hungary.
The reason for the decision of the court were the 2023 changes to the Criminal Code put in place by the SDSM-DUI led coalition, that watered down a number of provisions in the determining of guilt in abuse of office. The changes were adopted to shield SDSM and DUI officials from criminal investigations after their at that time expected fall from power, but have also had the effect on some cases launched by the SDSM dominated SPO office of prosecutors. The court informed that the prosecution has altered some of its case to make it better fit the new law, but that it could not change the evidence and witness statements that did not support the changed charges.
This was a politically staged case used for persecution of VMRO-DPMNE. This case was launched by the criminal SPO office, as part of the political persecution of VMRO-DPMNE, whose goal was to change the name of the country. Additionally, SDSM prefer not to mention the fact that this verdict was reached because of the changes to the criminal code, themselves adopted for clear goals, that included political influence meant to bring the Bulgarians in our Constitution, said Brane Petrusevski, member of Parliament from VMRO-DPMNE.