Zoran Zaev was asked in the Parliament today about his comments in which he was defending his former chief of staff Dragi Raskovski. Raskovski is currently detained over scandalous procurement of software he ordered from a company he is linked with. He diverted hundreds of thousands of euros in his own pockets with the contracts he himself signed – the scandal comes after years of much larger corruption scandals that were ignored by the prosecutors.

Zaev publicly stated that he disagrees with organized crime prosecutor Vilma Ruskoska who led the investigation and insisted that she was wrong and that Raskovski did not break the law. In response, the VMRO-DPMNE party accused him of trying to influence the outcome of the trial with his statements.

I have the right to state my own opinion on a matter that is conducted by an independent institution. I don’t have to agree with the prosecutor or what she claims – I may agree with her on a 100 cases and disagree on three or four. The final word will be decided by the court. In a free country we can freely talk and comment and no-one is guilty until it is proven in court, Zaev said.

One of the scandals involving Raskovski directly leads to Zaev – he was accused of meeting a Montenegrin developer who paid for the privilege of meeting Zaev and Raskovski, and was later granted access to a huge development opportunity in Tetovo.