The Skopje Appeals Court partially accepted the appeal from Zoran Mileski – Zoki Kiceec – one of the three main defendants in the major Racket scandal. The court approved of the original sentence – three years in prison, but will relent in the verdict which required Kiceec to have a good portion of his property seized and will return the sentence to a re-trial.

Kiceec was sentenced for his part in the extortion of 1.5 million EUR from businessman Jordan Orce Kamcev. He worked closely with then Special Prosecutor Katica Janeva, who was prosecuting Kamcev for money laundering, and showman Bojan Jovanovski – Boki 13. Kiceec and Boki 13 took the money from Kamcev, while negotiating leniency from Janeva, who initially allowed Kamcev to have his passport back, and was willing to sabotage her entire case against him – for a right price.  Janeva was sentenced to seven years in prison and the scandal collapsed her entire SPO office of “elite” prosecutors, while Boki 13 was sentenced to nine years, making Kiceec’s sentence by far the most lenient.

Early in the case Kiceec concluded a plea deal with the prosecutors and received a relatively light sentence. In apparent exchange, he provided the ruling SDSM party with recorded phone conversations which SDSM tried using against the opposition VMRO-DPMNE party. Even as SDSM involvement in the Racket scandal was evident, Kiceec tried helping the ruling party make it look like the opposition was also involved.

The Government is giving a pardon to Kiceec through the Appeals Court. The criminals and the mafia are in the Government, VMRO-DPMNE said in response to the revised sentencing.