Another round of testimonies in one of the politically motivated cases against former Prime Minister and VMRO leader Nikola Gruevski was held today. Several lower tier witnesses spoke today, a doctor who lent her apartment to Gruevski, and a secretary for a businessman. Also, powerful businessman Ilija Gecev was put on the stand.

Their testimonies were, as usual, used by the Zaev supporting press to try to drum up the allegations that Gruevski was trying to purchase a piece of land on Skopje’s posh Mt. Vodno for a villa.

In the case of Gecev, he testified that he was notified in 2011 or 2012 by former Transportation Minister Mile Janakieski that a piece of land owned by two other businessmen on Vodno is on sale, and was asked if he would be interested. The prosecution is trying to build a case that Gruevski was trying to get businessmen to buy land and then give it over to him.

Gruevski responded via his Facebook profile, to point that the land Gecev testified about was 1,300 square meters, while he is being charged with trying to buy 11,000 square meters. Gecev is a steel pipe magnate from Kavadarci, and is sometimes touted as potential contender for top positions in Zaev’s SDSM party, although he never fully made the switch to politics.

Doctor Biserka Jovkovska Kaeva testified that she was Gruevski’s neighbor and that she sold a small apartment in their building to lawyers she believes were intermediaries for Gruevski. A similar statement was made by Tatjana Stojanovska, who is secretary for businessman Aleksandar Ivanovski. She claimed that she bought two apartments and one plot of land on her name, with Ivanovski’s money, but that she believes that the apartments were actually used by Gruevski.

Gruevski responded that he never met Stojanovska, which she also confirmed before the court, and that he only met Ivanovski a couple of times in his life. He alleges that Ivanovski is being pressured by the prosecutors to provide false testimony that would politically harm Gruevski, especially at times when the Zaev regime is facing domestic and international failures and disasters, and any distraction is welcome.

The confused statements from Jovkovska – Kaeva and Stojanovska should be disregarded by any serious court. Ilija Gecev’s testimony is more serious, and it indicates that the prosecution is trying to plant false arguments before the court. The allegations against me are based on “some people”, “some lawyers”, using “money I don’t know from where”. But I have been declared guilty with even worse evidence, adds Gruevski, who received political asylum in Hungary because another politically motivated case initiated by the Zaev regime against him.