Aleksandar Kiracovski, the recently deposed Secretary General of the SDSM party, defended himself before the press today by insisting that he is not “Kiki” – the secretive SDSM party official who journalists reported was heavily involved in extorting money from businessmen. Kiracovski said that the journalist Branko Geroski, who wrote the initial reports about the high profile extortion cases, apologized to him and told him that he “fumbled the ball” in his case.

The press was speculating for months about the identities of “Kiki” and his party colleague “Friki”, and Prime Minister Zoran Zaev threatened lawsuits against media outlets who connect the dots. Now, organized crime prosecutor Vilma Ruskoska questioned Kiracovski, and the day before the former SDSM party deputy leader Frosina Remenski, who also denied involvement with the racketeering group.

Geroski responded to Kiracovski’s comments today by acknowledging that he likely “fumbled” on Kiracovski’s role in his articles, and tha the told Kiracovski this in a private meeting, but at the same time Geroski also repeated his core allegations against the SDSM party official.

In one subsequent article I explained that Kiracovski’s role was to enable the group of racketeers hunt down its victims and potential associates. Kiracovski was doing this in the capacity of SDSM party Secretary General. He was not necessarily involved in the racketeering himself, Geroski said.

The journalist said that, as Kiracovski is revealing the content of their discussions, he also doesn’t feel bound by the obligation of privacy any more and revealed how in July “Kiracovski persistently begged me to publicly testify that he is not ‘Kiki'”. Geroski says that Kiracovski also revealed to him that he set up a meeting between his friend Bojan Jovanovski – Boki 13, who is one of the prime suspects in the case so far, Bitola Mayor Natasa Petrovska and the Bitola based businessman Siljan Micevski.

During this meeting, and in two follow up letters, Petrovska was being pressured to approve the re-zoning of a piece of land owned by Micevski and to allow the construction of a hotel there (a pretend home for the elderly). “My job, as SDSM Secretary General, is to bring people together. Besides, I’m Siljan Micevski’s friend”, Geroski says were the words used by Kiracovski to describe his role in the scandal.

The experienced businessman Micevski eventually paid 720.000 EUR to Boki 13 for the scheme in which SDSM party mayors were supposed to approve such zoning decisions and to allow Boki 13 to build “homes for the elderly” in valuable locations in Bitola, Ohrid and elsewhere. Micevski recently said that he was aware that the “homes for the elderly”, which Boki 13 was presenting as practically charitable projects and was asking for state subsidies, would be eventually turned into commercial properties and sold for profit. Micevski is now asking for his money back and prosecutors are investigating his payment to Boki 13’s bogus charity tasked to implement the project.