After abusing the huge cache of illegally recorded wiretaps for years in order to blackmail political rivals, businessmen and journalists, the Government now plans to take this weapon away from its Special Prosecutor’s Office (SPO).

According to the new law on the SPO, which was presented today, the highly politicized prosecutorial service will no longer be able to base its charges on the unlawful recordings of uncertain origin, as it did in the past. The SPO will still be allowed to continue acting in the charges it filed so far, which are aimed almost exclusively against officials from the opposition VMRO-DPMNE party. The conservative party saw dozens of its top officials charged, some frivolously detained and attacked in prison, others, like former leader Nikola Gruevski, forced to flee the country and this style of political persecution. The campaign of initiating politically driven charges allowed the SDSM party, clearly favored by the SPO, to assume power and force a name change of Macedonia through the blackmailed Parliament.

The SPO can continue analyzing the wiretaps, which rogue elements in the security services shared with SDSM leader Zoran Zaev to help him assume power in Macedonia until 2020, but these recordings can only be used in the cases initiated until the end of June 2017. This is expected to get off the hook a number of politicians and businessmen which SDSM is now counting on, especially from the ethnic Albanian DUI party, which approved of this version of the law.

Katica Janeva’s group will also be allowed act in cases of electoral theft, fraud, Government corruption, abuse of office and other cases related to the actions of Government officials.