Saso Dukoski, the attorney representing showman Bojan Jovanovski – Boki 13, informed the press that the evidence he is offering to the court includes both recorded audio and screen-shots of his conversations with Zoran Zaev. Dukoski revealed that Zaev was offering Boki 13 to invest 100 million EUR in a major project that Boki was advancing, and over whose collapse he is now charged.
Boki 13 was already sentenced to nine years in prison over the Racket scandal – in it he was charged of using his links to Special Prosecutor Katica Janeva and Zaev’s SDSM party of extorting money from businessmen.
The second trial revolves around Boki’s bogus charity organization named the International Association. He was using the charity to pitch a plan to build state subsidized retirement homes to real-estate developers. The promise was that SDSM affiliated mayors will provide desirable real-estate, while Zaev’s Government will give funds through the Labour and Welfare Ministry, and that the homes will eventually be turned into proper commercial projects for a major profit. Boki is specifically charged with taking over a million EUR from two developers, from Bitola and Struga, who believed his promises that the ruling party stands behind his project and gave him the money to be included in it.
The scandal includes Zaev, who was close to Boki 13, but also Defense Minister Radmila Sekerinska, whose close relative was linked with the International Association, and another top SDSM party leader – Mila Carovska – as then Labour and Welfare Minister who was discussing giving state subsidies for the project. Former Deputy Speaker Frosina Remenski is Boki’s co-defendant, and the line-up of the project also included then British Ambassador Charles Garrett. Conversations with Karpos Mayor Stefan Bogoev, Bitola Mayor Natasa Petrovska and SDSM’s former Secretary General Aleksandar Kiracovski are also included in the evidence that Boki is now offering to the court.
Boki has announced that he will reveal what he knows about Zaev’s personal role in both scandals, and frequently asked state prosecutors to submit the contents of his own phone as evidence during the Racket trial. Boki insisted that the phone contains the key to his collaboration with Zaev, but the prosecutors did not dare explore this line of evidence. Dukoski says that he is now submitting these files as evidence to the court for the International Association trial, and refused to offer any other evidence or call on any witnesses until the court accepts the phone records. The court adjourned without reaching a decision on this demand and is due to announce its decision on the hearing, on May 26th.
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