Elenko Milanov, the lawyer for the defense in one of the cases initiated by the Special Prosecutor’s Office, demanded that Special Prosecutor Katica Janeva is removed from the case, owing to her resignation.
No-one is above the law. We asked that the Council of public prosecutors and the Parliament remove her from her position, Milanov said. A number of other defense teams, in other cases initiated by Janeva, have also asked that she is recused from the case.
Janeva offered a conditional resignation a month and a half ago, as allegations of her involvement in abuse of office and corruption broke, and she has been detained for two weeks now.
The courts are allowing her cases to continue for the time being, based on an instruction of Public Prosecutor Ljubomir Joveski, even as the Parliament is expected to begin a discussion on the proposal to remove her from office, and there is still no political agreement to appoint her successor.
In this particular case, Elenov defends former Transportation Minister Mile Janakieski against Janeva’s allegations that he ordered the demolition of a residential high-rise being built by politically linked developer Fijat Canoski as a means of political revenge. Canoski was part of the VMRO-DPMNE led coalition, but broke with it after the TV station of his close friend Velija Ramkoski was shut down over significant tax fraud and extortion.
As in most of the other early SPO cases, the target was then Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, who was accused of ordering the demolition of Canoski’s high-rise. Gruevski cited reports from building inspectors that the Canoski went above the approved size.
Canoski is back in the news recently as a company he is associated with was caught up in the very scandal which brought down Special Prosecutor Janeva. A Struga based construction company, led by a close associate of Canoski, paid more than 220.000 EUR to an associate of Janeva’s and this payment is now being investigated as part of the overall case against Janeva. The defense insists that this payment proves why Janeva brought charges over the demolition of Canoski’s high-rise.
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