Justice Minister Krenar Loga expressed his disappointment today, after another of the many politically motivated cases against VMRO-DPMNE officials has lapsed. In the latest case, former security chief Saso Mijalkov is charged in a trial about alleged election irregularities during the 2012 local elections in Strumica. Mijalkov is suspected of asking Albanian coalition partners to help cancel out the vote in several polling stations in Strumica, to make sure that SDSM party leader Zoran Zaev does not win the mayoral race outright.

As soon as I assumed the position, I asked the Judicial Council and the Council of Prosecutors to take steps that trials proceed in proper pace and are not delayed, so that we avoid reaching statute of limitations. I regret that another trial reached that statute of limitations, and that it concerns the same suspect, Loga said.

Mijalkov is already sentenced in several of the trials against him, but is receiving preferential treatment from the Government, in an attempt to use him to sow division in VMRO-DPMNE.