The Skopje Appeals Court found journalist Marjan Stamenkovski – Dokaz not guilty in the trial where he was charged with two counts of blackmail.

A little over a year ago, Stamenkovski was sentenced by the court of first instance to three years in prison for publishing slanderous materials about a number of individuals on his “yellow” news site Dokaz, and trying to extort money from them to stop reporting. The defendants included fellow journalists, a top Government official, a businessman and even priests, who Stamenkovski tried to portray as agents of foreign intelligence services.

Stamenkovski’s defense was that he was cooperating with two prosecutors, Saso Rajcev and well known politically linked prosecutor Fatime Fetai, who he labeled as “his associates”. Fetai and Rajcev were feeding Stamenkovski with information, he claimed before the court.

In May 2023 high prosecutors prepared charged against Fetaiand Rajcev for abuse of office. The case was prepared by prosecutor Mustafa Hajrulahi, but Republika has found that chief state prosecutor Ljupco Joveski refused to move forward with this case and kept it blocked until December 2023. In January 2024, the charges were sent to the Bitola prosecutors’ office, but they are also not moving forward with investigation against their colleagues suspected of involvement in extortion.