VMRO-DPMNE Secretary General Igor Janusev declared Zoran Zaev’s request to appoint Vilma Ruskoska as the new Special Prosecutors as an attempt to install a new Katica Janeva – prosecutor loyal to the SDSM party and who will protect SDSM officials and prosecute only members of the opposition.

Macedonia can’t afford a repeat of the Katica Janeva scandal. The Government is moving to protect itself from the consequences of its crimes, but it will hit a wall and sooner or later the truth will come out. The Government doesn’t care about having a proper Special Prosecutor’s Office, it only cares about having tools for political persecution. They don’t care about justice – everywhere they go they violate the rule of law – but only care about the coming change in the Government which means they will be held responsible in accordance with the law, Janusev said.

The marathon talks between VMRO-DPMNE and SDSM leaders failed overnight, as Prime Minister Zaev demanded that Ruskoska is the new Special Prosecutor, or that the reorganized unit only has mandate to investigate future crimes and not those perpetrated in the previous two and half years of Zaev’s administration.

Initially Zaev demanded that the SPO remains run by Katica Janeva. He even called her the “symbol of the renewed faith in the rule of law”. Half a year later, he seeks salvation in his new Katica – Vilma Ruskoska, Janusev said.

Ruskoska was responsible for the broad “terrorism” trial over the April 2017 incident in the Parliament, a case which was used to blackmail three VMRO-DPMNE members of Parliament into voting to rename Macedonia into North Macedonia. Ruskoska then botched the investigation into Katica Janeva’s racketeering allegations, allowing the disgraced Special Prosecutor to try and destroy evidence, leave the country for a while and now even order her SPO office to shut down in favor of the OJO office of state prosecutors. This is why VMRO rejects her appointment and demands a non-partisan prosecutor who would investigate crimes perpetrated by the Zaev regime as well as those of the opposition.

It is clear that Ruskoska’s role is to do all she can to protect Zaev and Janeva. She even took her vacation in the midst of the investigation into Janeva, allowing the defendants to destroy evidence. The institutions need to muster courage and investigate this huge scandal in full, VMRO said in a press release.