English
Organized crime prosecutor Islam Abazi and his deputy Katerina Kolarevic undermined the investigation into the large oil procurement scandal to benefit SDSM and DUI politically, said VMRO-DPMNE official Antonio Milososki. The case for the contract worth over 160 million EUR, that was given to a company linked to DUI member of Parliament Ismail Jahoski, was thrown out this week by the two prosecutors, who owe their positions to DUI and SDSM.
It’s clear that the prosecutors were biased in the collection of evidence. They took statements from officials from the ESM company who were not involved in this case, instead of seriously gathering evidence. It’s also clear that they selectively failed to read the audit reports who found that the oil that was delivered had come from different suppliers than the ones listed in the contract and that experts found that the oil contains far more impurities that caused defects in the TEC Negotino plant, said Milososki.
The oil was bought in an expedited procedure after mismanagement of the ESM/ELEM power plant in Bitola left Macedonia without sufficient coal reserves in the midst of the energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine. The contract went to a politically linked company and the oil it procured was allegedly harmful for the citizens living near the Negotino plant and other sites where it was burnt.
This duo of prosecutors is more aligned to its political mentors, Zaev, Ahmeti and Venko Filipce, than to the rule of law and the need to prosecute organized crime and corruption. We again call on the Council of Prosecutors to engage with this case, to investigate the actions of Abazi and Kolarevic, and to determine whether they deliberately made omissions in order to throw out this major scandal from the court. We also tell them that this lucrative, politically motivated decision, will not stop the investigation and will not prevent us from uncovering the truth, said Milososki.