Sutka prison warden Esad Rahic confirmed that the letters which now disgraced Special Prosecutor Katica Janeva sent from his prison, to abolish her Special Prosecutor’s Office, were handwritten and were not notarized.
She handed me the letter, asked me to send it out, but according to our procedures I asked her to give it to the guard who was on duty, he delivered it to me, I archived it and it was sent out, Rahic said.
Janeva was detained in August on charges of racketeering and abuse of office. This threw a wrench in her office, which the ruling SDSM party has been using to pressure and attack the opposition VMRO-DPMNE party. Fearful that Janeva’s cases will collapse now that the person who initiated them is arrested, the SDSM party demanded a solution and Janeva sent letters from prison handing over her case files to the OJO office of state prosecutors, also ran by an SDSM loyalist prosecutor Ljubomir Joveski. This was done despite the fact that, under law, a prosector who has been detained loses all his authority. The letters also carried no seal, were not notarized, and overall their authenticity and power were disputed.
But, Joveski eagerly took Janeva’s cases, even taking on and appointing her deputy prosecutors to continue representing them, and the courts also accepted their authority, after the Government made it clear this is their request.
This also undermined the negotiations between SDSM and VMRO-DPMNE to adopt a new law on state prosecutors, which were supposed to resolve the growing crisis in the judiciary. Faced with VMRO demands that the opposition appoints the next special prosecutor, with mandate to look into the numerous allegations of crimes during the short SDSM term in office, SDSM decided to steer clear from adopting a new law which would’ve led to scrutiny for SDSM officials as well, and to carry on using Janeva’s letters as basis for continued prosecution of VMRO officials.
One of Janeva’s cases, in which she is suspected of trying to help a businessman who paid money to her associates get 40 million EUR in damages from the state, is being pushed by an SDSM affiliated judge and will likely be resolved next week.
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