Former Transportation Minister Mile Janakieski gave his final defense in the politically motivated case in which he is charged over a contract signed with an Israeli company for the Sun City real-estate deal near Skopje. Janakieski said that he was bound by law to sign the contract and would have been held responsible if he didn’t sign it.

I approved the creation of a commission that acted on dozens of public procurement contracts. It was not formed for this one case. All members of the commission testified that they were not in contact with me at all. The prosecution did not prove that I was contacting the group or that I knew somebody in it, Janakieski said, adding that he was in a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation after all institutions gave approval of the contract.

The decision to approve construction was subsequently challenged at the Constitutional Court, which rescinded it – this is part of the arguments used by the prosecution. But Janakieski said that in 2007, when he signed the approval, he could not know that three years later the Court will rescind it. He also pointed out that the prosecution is basing parts of its case on the testimony of an expert who did not have a license at the time when he prepared a report.