The office of state prosecutors (OJO) announced today that they will stop cooperation with the State Anti-Corruption Commission (DKSK) – a key body that investigates reports of corruption and recommends prosecution. The two institutions only recently signed a memorandum of cooperation, under strong pressure from the US, which wants to see results in the fight against the rampant high level corruption.

The reason for this unprecedented decision is the DKSK report that two OJO prosecutors, Gavril Bubevski and Artan Ajro, did not act to seize valuable construction equipment from businessman Seat Kocan. Kocan was persecuted by the politically motivated State Prosecutor’s Office for his work on coal and highway projects in Macedonia, and the equipment, instead of being seized in favor of the state, was eventually purchased by businessman Ismail Jahoski, who is member of Parliament for the ruling DUI party.

With this, DKSK alleged that the state budget was harmed by 12.4 million EUR and the blame is laid at the feet of the prosecutors, who are seen as partisan agents of the Government. This angered the office of state prosecutors, and led to their decision to end their memorandum of cooperation with DKSK.