Hours after the arrest of Dragi Raskovski, the man who was until recently top lieutenant to Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, Zaev addressed the issue before the press. He insisted that the case against Raskovski proves that there is no impunity in the country, no matter how high the official involved, but also reiterated that Raskovski needs to have his presumption of innocence protected.

No matter if someone was Secretary General in my office until last Autumn and a Secretary until a few days ago, the law applies equally to all. At the same time, we need to respect the position that no-one is guilty until proven and we must protect the presumption of his innocence, Zaev said.

Raskovski, an Albino information technology professor at the Skopje Law Faculty and Zaev’s friend from Strumica, was involved in a long list of scandals, at least one of which included Zaev directly. It was the allegation that he received a bribe from Montenegrin businessman Miodrag Davidovic – Daka to arrange his meeting with Zaev, and to discuss a huge real-estate deal in Tetovo, which Zaev later approved. The prosecutors ignored at least three significant criminal allegations against Raskovski, but are now moving against him for the allegation that he had the Interior Ministry purchase an unneeded software program he developed for 80,000 EUR.

In his statements, Zaev insisted that the program was purchased lawfully, and continues to hold Raskovski’s corner on this matter.