Bojan Jovanovski – Boki 13 underwent a long and complicated surgery to remove a large portion of his stomach. His lawyer Saso Dukovski told Republika that the doctors determined precancerous tissue growth and are now having a significant portion of his stomach taken out.

The four hour surgery was a success. He remains in intensive care, Dukovski said.

Boki 13 is an SDSM party insider who was part of a large racketeering group that abused the party’s power to extort millions from businessmen. He was sentenced to nine years in prison in the same trial that took down Special Prosecutor Katica Janeva. During the trial, Boki 13 acknowledged what the public assumed to be true – that the actual leader of such a high level extortion group is Prime Minister Zoran Zaev. But the court refuses to review the evidence offered by Jovanovski and prosecutors do not dare expand the charges toward the still powerful Zaev family.