Frosina Remenski, an SDSM member of Parliament and former deputy leader of the ruling party, was largely evasive in her comments after being questioneda about her ties with showman and charged racketeer Bojan Jovanovski – Boki 13. Remenski, who was an honorary President of the bogus charity Boki 13 set up to extort money, made one specific call after her interrogation – that all other politicians who were close to Boki 13 should also be questioned.

Remenski is the first high level SDSM party official to be interrogated in the major corruption scandal. Yesterday, a similar message came from former SDSM party Secretary General Aleksandar Kiracovski, who was also exceptionally close to Boki 13.

As the investigation draws closer, Kiracovski says that all politicians who were pictured with Boki 13 should be investigated

The broader list of SDSM party officials who were meeting regularly with Boki, and were, the opposition claims, giving him the political clout necessary to extort millions from businessman, includes Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and his deputy Radmila Sekerinska, as well as much of the Government and the top brass of the SDSM party.

In her statement to the press, Remenski refused to lay the blame on Boki 13, using broad terms to describe his actions. She denied any active involvement in the working of the International Association, the charity which Boki used to draw at least a million EUR from two major businessmen he was courting to invest in a retirement home project. According to one of them, powerful Bitola based construction mogul Siljan Micevski, who paid more than 700.000 EUR to the International Association, the plan was to build retirement villas in a coveted beach-side spot in Ohrid, and sell them for profit a few years down the road. Boki 13 was promoting the plan as a charity program, and was presenting it before SDSM appointed Mayors across the country, and was reportedly demanding subsidies for the scheme from top Government officials.

Remenski insisted that other people were named as “honorary Presidents” of the International Association, and said that this doesn’t mean she was involved in the work of the bogus charity. She pledged to remain available to the prosecutors as they investigate the major scandal that cuts straight to the top of the Government.