Amid reports that former state security chief Saso Mijalkov is again evading the serving out of his prison sentence, calls are multiplying to put an end to the sham justice served out in Macedonia and to release former Interior Minister Gordana Jankuloska.
Jankuloska has been imprisoned since September 2020, and is serving out a four year sentence for the purchase of an armored Mercedes vehicle.

She is the only high level official of the Nikola Gruevski governments in prison right now, even though she has a four year old at home. Mijalkov was sentenced to 21 years in prison for various corruption and abuse of office cases, but he is openly negotiating and dealing with the SDSM led Government – including helping them get to the necessary votes in Parliament to impose the name change, and has worked to divide the opposition VMRO-DPMNE party. For these services, Mijalkov is supposed to be serving out his sentence in a lakeside open style prison in Struga, and is reportedly not even doing that – a recent attempt to provide him for a trial failed, prompting claims that Mijalkov is allowed to roam free.

Government officials have been expressing outrage these past few days, after the Appeals Court in Skopje revoked a key sentence against Mijalkov – in the trial in which he was charged with massive wiretapping – which was a central case of the SDSM led Colored Revolution. But the condemnations of the courts decision are widely mocked in the public, considering that the Government is again trying to use bribes and threats to get VMRO members of Parliament to support another foreign request – this time from Bulgaria – and Mijalkov could be useful in this regard.

This state of affairs prompted public commentators to call for Jankuloska’s release. Considering that Gruevski is in political asylum in Hungary, considering the kid gloves treatment of Mijalkov, and the fact that other high profile prisoners such as Orce Kamcev and Zoran Kiceec, were also sent to the “resort prison” in Struga, Jankuloska’s treatment as well as the treatment of the ordinary citizen – protesters who were given lengthy sentences over the April 27th incident, are left is stark and cruel contrast. In Jankuloska’s case, the money were not embezzled, the Interior Ministry did purchase a vehicle meant for transporting high level visiting dignitaries, which is still in use and was used to chauffeur the likes of Angela Merkel and Theresa May. Such sentences, and the major corruption scandal involving Special Prosecutor Katica Janeva, who was supposed to be the saviour of the judicial system, have brought the reputation of the Macedonian judiciary to just 8 percent. A recent IRI poll shows that only 4 percent of the citizens fully trust the judiciary, and additional 19 percent have some trust in it.

Commentator and former NGO activist who is now a VMRO official Saso Klekovski titled his latest column “Freedom for Gordana!” and points out the “selective inaction” by the courts in many cases, except in the case of Jankuloska and the April 27th trial.

My call is an attempt to put an end to the politically motivated sentencing. Maybe Jankuloska is at fault for other cases, but she is not guilty in the case she is sentenced over. If all other legal options are exhausted, it’s time that President Stevo Pendarovski considers issuing a pardon, Klekovski writes.

Pollster Vladimir Bozinovski joined in the call. “These are very strange sentences. Gordana Jankuloska is forced to languish in a cell while she has a small child at home. First we need to see that foundations of the judiciary change, and then we can talk about good governance”, Bozinovski said.