Prosecutor Vilma Ruskoska, who is leading the charge against showman Bojan Jovanovski – Boki 13 which prompted the resignation of Special Prosecutor Katica Janeva, confirmed that the recorded evidence contains a conversation “with one prosecutor”.
Ruskoska said that Boki 13 was meeting with a businessman, widely believed to be Jordan Orce Kamcev, and was extorting money from him, promising that he will get the unnamed prosecutor to go easy on Kamcev in a major money laundering case. Kamcev recorded these meetings and the recordings include speakerphone conversations with the prosecutor.
Ruskoska, who was already proposed by Prime Minister Zoran Zaev to take Janeva’s place, was asked by a journalist whether the evidence includes calls to Katica Janeva.
Yes, it can be seen and heard on the recordings. I can’t speak in detail about the evidence, but yes, you can hear a conversation with a public prosecutor, Ruskoska said.
She added that Boki 13 met at least twice with Katica Janeva in her SPO office. Boki 13 reportedly asked for eight million EUR from Kamcev to get Janeva to drop her charges against him, and the sum was later negotiated down to six million, 1.5 million of which were paid. While this was on-going, Kamcev had his passport returned to him, and the case was also struck down, but at the Supreme Court, not through actions of the Special Prosecutor.
According to the Expres news site, the negotiations between Kamcev and Boki 13 at one point hit a snag when the businessman was not sure that Boki 13 will deliver on his promise to get Katica Janeva to drop her charges against him, and wanted assurances before paying such a huge sum of money. At this point, Janeva was called up and she personally gave her guarantee, the site reports.
Janeva is still not charged in this case, but she resigned shortly after Boki 13 was arrested on Monday. Police seized one of her phones, while she insisted that she lost the other phone she was using. Her son Lazar Janev, who was working in 1TV, the TV station owned by Boki 13 and allegedly accompanied him on his racketeering runs, defended his mother saying that she lost he phone while on a trip in Belgrade. Lazar Janev also had his personal computer seized by the police.
Janeva was using the large cache of wiretaps that were given to her in 2015 by SDSM party leader Zoran Zaev to initiate a series of politically driven criminal charges against top officials of the VMRO-DPMNE party, clearing the way for Zaev to grab power in Macedonia. In the process she was declared a hero by both SDSM supporters and many in the international community, while VMRO insisted all along that she is running a rogue operation and is deeply involved in crime and extortion herself.
In another in the series of interviews she gave, Ruskoska also revealed that Kamcev was asking to meet her while he was still in house arrest, claiming that he is being blackmailed. She agreed that giving the bribe is a crime in itself, but that Kamcev reported the act, which frees him from responsibility.
Ruskoska again called on other businessmen who were extorted by Boki 13, for the benefit of the “unnamed prosecutor”, to step forward, adding that it is believed people paid significant sums, above half a million EUR, to get the prosecutor to drop her charges against them.
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