VMRO-DPMNE strongly condemned the move by the Interior Ministry and the state prosecutors to launch charges against three police officers after a leaked report showed that Zoran Zaev’s brother Vice Zaev was extorting money from a coal mining company that won a state contract. VMRO spokesman Dimitar Arsovski said that law enforcement should investigate the scandal, including clear indications of cover-up in the Ministry, and not go after whistleblowers and officers who were just trying to do their job.
This practice, of criminals harassing professionals, shows why Macedonia is ranked 111th in the world in fighting corruption. Zaev was caught deeply involved in yet another corruption scandal and is using his tentacles spread throughout the administrative state, to cover up evidence of his crime. For a year the state prosecutors were scared to open a case after the revelations that the brother of the Prime Minister was engaged in extortion worth 250,000 EUR, and in the end decided to simply forge the documents and cover it all up. Is there a more corrupt law enforcement service anywhere in the world?, Arsovski asked.
The forged document is a statement from the owner of the coal mining company which won a contract to work at the state owned REK Bitola mine. Immediately it was met with pressure from Vice Zaev who demanded that the contract is given to a company linked to him, then demanded a bribe of 250,000 EUR and eventually muscled the company from the mine and took the deal over himself.
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