The Infomax news site reports that the Zaev Government and Public Prosecutor Ljubor Joveski decided to keep the Special Prosecutor’s Office largely intact. The unit led by disgraced prosecutor Katica Janeva is being rolled back into Joveski’s OJO/PPO unit, under a controversial order Janeva sent from prison, but today the SPO prosecutors were told to report to their old jobs.
Initially, it was reported that Joveski told them to stay at the SPO in order to “safe-guard” their files and the evidence collected in the office. But, Infomax now reports that Joveski, in consultation with the Government, decided to keep the same prosecutors, minus Janeva, running the same roster of SPO files and remain in the SPO offices in downtown Skopje.
Joveski revealed this to the SPO prosecutors during a meeting, announcing that he will likely appoint a coordinator of their activities, Infomax reports.
Many of the SPO staff were suspected of involvement in Janeva’s racketeering efforts, and three of her deputies were interrogated in the scandal, but it is evident that the Zaev regime wants to reward the unit for its services so far, and to preserve it in order to continue its campaign of persecution against the opposition. Given the way the SPO is set up, after Janeva was dismissed last week, all other prosecutors were supposed to return to their old jobs, some in the Skopje OJO offices, and others in the smaller towns they were recruited from.
The next step, Infomax writes, will be to pressure the courts to accept to continue hearings on the SPO files, with prosecutors who derive their authority from Joveski instead of Katica Janeva. A number of hearings were postponed over the past weeks, as Janeva was charged and detained.
But, after the dismissal of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Jovo Vangelovski, which was preceded by Zaev’s overt interference, every single judge has a crystal clear indication what will happen to him if he resists the orders from the executive. Our sources tell us that we may witness some initial play-acting, but ultimately, the courts will fulfill their orders, and the outcome is pre-arranged. The goal of the operation is to have a number of sentences issued against former VMRO-DPMNE officials ahead of the general elections next year, but also to initiate new charges against current VMRO-DPMNE party officials, so that Zaev could remain in office after the elections, Infomax reports.
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