As expected, the new Racket trial against Bojan Jovanovski – Boki 13 was postponed shortly after it started. Deputy Parliament Speaker Frosina Remenski, who is charged of extortion of over a million EUR along with Boki 13, demanded that prosecutor Vilma Ruskoska is removed because of her political bias and this was enough for the judge to postpone the trial for July 21, safely after the elections.

Boki 13 announced that he will reveal shocking new details about the involvement of SDSM party leader Zoran Zaev in the major racketeering case, but did not have much of a chance to speak other than to ironically admonish the judge for still having a sign that says “Republic of Macedonia” in the courthouse. Boki 13 mentioned the coming elections and said that his co-defendant in the original Racket trial, Zoran Mileski – Zoki Kiceec, was released by the court so that he can help SDSM rig the elections. Kiceec was given a relatively light sentence of just three years in prison for his role in the Racket scandal. He apparently recorded several conversations he had with VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski and is now leaking them in the run up to the elections in an attempt to help SDSM, whose top leaders, including Zoran Zaev, are being credibly accused of running the entire racketeering operation centered around Boki 13 and Special Prosecutor Katica Janeva.

Remenski gave a lengthy statement to the press gathered at the courthouse. She accused prosecutor Vilma Ruskoska of giving an illegal order to search her home and said that she wants to see Ruskoska recused, but added that she doesn’t believe it will happen.

There is clearly a strong propaganda element to the trial and it will be used to score points in the run up to the campaign about how some kind of justice is being dispensed, Remenski said, hinting that her own SDSM party will likely use her as a sacrificial lamb to be able to say that at least one top SDSM official was put on trial for the numerous scandals of Zaev’s administration.

Boki 13 has declared himself particularly eager to talk, especially now that he has been sentenced to 13 years in prison. In his final statements before the court in the original Racket scandal, Boki 13 confirmed that Zaev was closely involved in the scandal, and tried end the case against businessman Jordan Orce Kamcev and Saso Mijalkov, because the two were important for his push to secure votes from renegade opposition members of Parliament for the name change. Boki 13 finally testified that the money he is being sentenced for can be found with Zoran Zaev and his brother Vice. This all made the odds very high that his next chance to speak publicly, during the new Racket trial, will be postponed for after the elections.