A Skopje court found today that the case of the prosecution in the second racketeering case against Bojan Jovanovski – Boki 13 is solid enough to take the case to trial.

Boki 13 is charged in the case with extorting money from businessmen using an opaque real-estate development scheme that was being disguised within a bogus charity organization. The case is notable for the fact that it includes charges against a top SDSM party official, former party deputy leader and Deputy Parliament Speaker Frosina Remenski. She is the only SDSM official who was charged in the sprawling network of extortion and influence peddling that was revolving around Boki 13, who was close friends with much of the party leadership.\

Boki 13’s father and two of his associates were also charged in the case. The group is charged with duping two real-estate developers, Siljan Miceski and Adrian Azmoski, into paying 720.000 and 234.000 EUR respectively, with the promise that they will be included in lucrative real-estate development schemes that Boki 13 was preparing with mayors from the SDSM party. It’s still unclear whether the businessmen were paying the money also as part of a blackmail, given that Boki 13 was using his close friendship with disgraced former Special Prosecutor Katica Janeva as an extortion tool. In Azmoski’s case, it is alleged that the money were given to Janeva in exchange for her initiating a tiral that could lead to an enormous severance payment for businessman Fijat Canoski, who is related to Azmoski.

Boki 13 and Janeva are already charged in the original Racket case, with extorting 1,5 million EUR from businessman Jordan Orce Kamcev. The cases completely blew up any public trust in the judiciary, including in the ability of state prosecutors to investigate the political links radiating from Boki 13 and Katica Janeva. Last week, Boki 13 pointed his finger directly at SDSM party leader Zoran Zaev, revealing that Zaev tipped him off that he is under an investigation for racketeering.