The prosecutor named in the charges against Bojan Jovanovski – Boki 13 is no other than the Special Prosecutor Katica Janeva, who resigned today just as the news of Boki 13’s arrest broke. This is reported by Alsat TV’s 360 Degrees program.
Janeva’s name was the first association as the charges against Boki 13 were announced by chief prosecutor Ljubomir Joveski and organized crime prosecutor Vilma Ruskoska. The two accused Boki 13 of extorting 1.5 million EUR from an unnamed businessman who was charged with crimes after they promised him they will ensure that an unnamed prosecutor will be lenient on him or even drop the charges altogether.
In November 2018 Janeva initiated a criminal investigation against a large business conglomerate led by Orce Kamcev, and included former security chief Saso Mijalkov and businessman Cvetan Pandeleski, as well as 10 other people in the case she named “Empire”. Mijalkov already faced half a dozen other charges filed by Janeva, during her campaign to erode the VMRO-DPMNE party. Kamcev, Mijalkov, Pandeleski and the others were charged and initially detained, but have since been mostly out of prison. Janeva’s charges were that the Bitola based conglomerate laundered 11 million EUR and damaged the state budget.
Boki 13 is seen as close to the prosecutor, as well as to numerous other officials from the ruling SDSM party. According to the charges filed against him, he got a businessman, now widely presumed to be Kamcev, to pay him 1.5 million EUR to get a prosecutor, now named by Alsat TV as Janeva, to show leniency in his case. The charges presented by prosecutors Joveski and Ruskoska today, also seen as close to the Zaev regime, allege that Boki 13 asked for a total of eight million EUR to have the charges against the businessman dropped, but the request was negotiated down to 6.5 million EUR to have the charges dropped, or five to ensure more lenient conduct from the prosecutor.
Janeva’s son Lazar works for Boki 13 in his 1TV station and many of the top journalists who Boki 13 hired in the past year, are outspokenly supportive both of Janeva and of the SDSM party.
Janeva announced that she has filed her resignation today, just as the news about Boki 13’s arrest broke. The resignation was couched in language meaning to make the move appear to be driven by her desire to allow the country to move forward and open EU accession talks, and she added that the resignation will become effective once a successor is agreed between the SDSM and VMRO-DPMNE parties.
Boki 13 and several top SDSM party officials were being called out over the past several weeks by journalist Branko Geroski, who claimed that they organized a widespread racketeering ring, and were extorting money from businessmen and calling lucrative favors from SDSM party appointed mayors. Geroski claimed that in one instance, Boki 13 and a top SDSM official extorted 200.000 EUR from a businessman and former mayor in a Skopje municipality, threatening him with wiretaps that would lead to a criminal investigation against him. The wiretaps which SDSM and Zoran Zaev used to bring down the Nikola Gruevski and VMRO-DPMNE led Government during the 2015 – 2017 political crisis are stored in Janeva’s office, although it is widely believed that copies are spread through the political underworld and are being used for blackmail and extortion.
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