Former Finance Minister Xhevdet Hajredini joined the calls for removal of Public Prosecutor Ljubomir Joveski.

Joveski is facing calls to resign after an investigative report showed that his prosecutors would not expand the investigation in the disastrous 2021 Tetovo hospital fire that killed 14. Only managers of the hospital were charged (and received suspended sentence and a not-guilty verdict), despite serious concerns about how Healthcare Minister Venko Filipce led the process of construction of improvised Covid wards, and how the contract was given to a company owned by former Deputy Prime Minister Koco Angjusev.

According to Hajredini, Joveski should be removed for another case that strongly influences Albanian parties in Macedonia – the Deutsche Telekom corruption scandal. Evidence presented by US prosecutors, who charged the German company with corrupt practices in Macedonia and Montenegro, showed that then Prime Minister Vladimir Buckovski was involved in the scandal, and former President Branko Crvenkovski was at least aware of it. But it also showed that current leader of the DUI party Ali Ahmeti and his then deputy Musa Xhaferi were instrumental in the scandal that involves taking bribes from Deutsche Telekom to keep the Macedonian market closed for potential competitors. It is widely believed that the case was used to pressure Ahmeti, but as he accumulated power under the Zaev regime, it’s likely that judges and prosecutors are now really unable to fully investigate the allegations.