Judge Osman Shabani from the Basic Criminal Court in Skopje handed a not guilty verdict to former Culture Minister Elizabeta Kanceska Milevska. She was charged in one of the most high profile cases initiated by now disgraced Special Prosecutor Katica Janeva, who alleged that Kanceska used the large program of urban renewal in Skopje – the Skopje 2014 project – to divert funds toward the then ruling VMRO-DPMNE party.

In 2018, Kanceska joined the group of eight VMRO-DPMNE members of Parliament who voted in favor of the imposed name change. Almost all of them did so to avoid jail time as they had various criminal cases aimed against them or against family members. Various perks were also used, such as lucrative public contracts, diplomatic posts and public sector jobs for family members.

Kanceska had her trial dragged out for years, which strongly indicated that part of her deal to vote for the name change is to avoid any criminal accountability. This especially angered some of the SDSM party activists and Colored Revolution protesters, who used the Skopje 2014 project as the basis for their protests, that raged in 2015 and 2016. During the protests, left wing activists attacked monuments and public buildings built under the project with paint, and demanded prison terms for the political authors of the project.