“This is a time when justice comes into play, a time when there must be no saving in the fight against crime and corruption. No one is privileged and no one will be forgiven. We encourage the Public Prosecutor’s Office to continue in this fight, no matter who gets to through the investigation. ”

Yesterday’s statement by Prime Minister Zoran Zaev was understood by many as an announcement to intensify the investigation into the “Racket” affair and as a decisive response of the Prime Minister to the serious message we got from Matthew Palmer, the US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, who removed all doubts that the Americans intend to protect Special Prosecutor Katica Janeva from any prosecution in connection with the scandal.

The first signal that Zaev must be more decisive during a visit to our well-known US diplomat Reeker. But given the danger that Reeker was not seriously understood, Palmer also made the following statement on Janeva’s accusations:

“These are serious allegations and all such serious allegations require a serious response. We support a full, thorough and transparent investigation into these allegations and, if there is evidence, appropriate prosecution. This is an opportunity for the authorities in North Macedonia to demonstrate a willingness to respect the rule of law. ”

Zaev finally made it clear yesterday that he understood the message.

Branko Gerovski, who through his columns opened the “Racket affair”, in his latest column published on Plusinfo, points out that “Racket” is getting deeper, more complicated, and raises three key questions that are yet to seek answers:

The first question is for what crimes could the suspects Bojan Jovanovski, Zoran Milevski – Kiceec, but also other persons not yet covered by the investigation, especially the Special Prosecutor Janeva, as well as the signatories of the disputed contracts between the construction companies and the International Association and above all the individuals who raised the disputed contributions as fees, be charged with.

The second dilemma is how and to what extent Zoran Zaev, Radmila Sekerinska and Parliament Deputy Speaker Frosina Remenski, three leading figures in Macedonian politics, had influenced the success of Bojan Jovanovski’s group in its criminal activities. In doing so, here, I unequivocally accept Zaev’s claim that he was abused and extend this thesis to the three mentioned.

And thirdly, the big question is what the further course of the investigation might be and how it will affect the popularity of Zoran Zaev’s government?

Who protects Katica Janeva?

Up to this point, according to the public’s knowledge of the course of the investigation (which does not have to be comprehensive, as the investigation does not necessarily inform the public about everything), the investigation is mainly focused on the case of “trading with influence” between the suspects and businessman Orce Kamcev, the evidence and circumstances surrounding that event, which I have long publicly warned about is very solid and convincingly documented. At this point, it seems that the key problem of treating this part of the investigation is the unreasonable attempt to leave out the leaving special prosecutor from the list of suspects and to neglect her role in the “trading with influence”, which is also documented. Her clumsy attempts to conceal evidence (reformatting computers and telephones), in turn, make Katica Janeva a very serious candidate for detention.

At this point, it is not clear who exactly is trying to protect Janeva. To my knowledge, it is not Prime Minister Zoran Zaev. It is hard for me to imagine Prosecutor Vilma Ruskovska having a motive for that. Following Palmer’s statement, the story that Katica was being defended by the Americans fails. On the contrary, my information is that they are totally disappointed with the behavior of their former protégé. Accordingly, there is only one logical answer to the question who protects Katica, an answer that is close to what is heard in the halls – Katica protects Katica! Namely, there is speculation that Janeva is sending messages that in case she has to join Boki and Kiceec, she intends to “speak” in order to drag others into the abyss.

An additional problem is that several businessmen have already stated in the investigation that they were racketeered in the same way as Kamcev, and one of them supported his statement with a witness statement. Some of the businessmen from whom the suspect Jovanovski and the group were directly extorting money (citing friendship with Katica Janeva and compromising materials from the SPO) are still silent about the racketeering, but there are already speculations on their names and it is estimated that their further delays to give statements can seriously put them in a situation and make themselves criminally responsible. Especially if the two suspects “speak”, and most importantly Boki himself, who allegedly was already sending such messages.

Is it a criminal association?

But that’s not all. On July 30 this year, in the article entitled “All of you involved in Boki 13’s International Association, how long do you think you can hide?” I turned my attention to Jovanovski’s Association and its role in the criminal activities of the “King” “. I wrote that I have photos of multiple documents about a criminal scheme that involved more people. Then, my colleagues from other media (Telma, Kanal 5 and some news portals) worked harder and faster than me, releasing the documents, and Telma provided a key statement from the person Liljana Todorovska, an elder woman to whom Siljan Micevski’s Pelister GP paid her a fee of 720,000 euros, which, as she claims, were taken from her by people from the International Association. She did not say which people, but she will say if asked during the investigation.

The Association’s contracts with Micevski and Adrian Amzoski’s “Dream Building” company (both publicly disclosed) were signed by the suspect Bojan Jovanovski, his right hand Jasna Mandic (she is also mentioned as a person who received over 280,000 euros from Amzoski through the Macedonian Copyright Agency, issued invoice No. 11/18 dated 02.01.2018), Agapi Dika and the coordinator Jovanka Kuhar. By the way, to complement the picture, let’s say that Adrian is the brother-in-law of businessman Fiat Canoski (he now demands 300,000 euros with a lawsuit from Boki), Agapi Dika is the sister of Judge Meri Dika, while Jovanka Kuhar is rumored to be a relative of former 1TV editor Jadranka Kostova. About Jasna Mandic’s connections a little later, but now let’s repeat that connoisseurs consider her a key accomplice to the suspect Jovanovski, if not the brain of the whole operation.

So, at this point, the dilemma is the following – what are Jovanovski, Mandic, Dika, Kuhar and Todorovska guilty of, who were obviously signatories together and part of the beneficiaries of the disputed contracts?

Remenski and Shekerinska in the plot

We come to the most sensitive part of the story, the question of what do these people have to do with Zoran Zaev, Radmila Sekerinska and Frosina Remenski? And where are former Secretary General Aleksandar Kiracovski and current spokesman Kostadin Kostadinov, who is also part of the International Association? Where are Minister Goran Sugarevski and several mayors here, all signatories of a memorandum of cooperation with the “King’s” NGO, with which he persuaded the victims (if at all victims), that he could provide whatever he promised them, because he was cooperating with the government, headed by Prime Minister Zaev.

As to the signatories of the memorandums, suppose that most of them did not know the true intentions of the suspect Jovanovski, and the notorious fact that they did not go one step further than signing the memorandums could be accepted as evidence. But now, knowing everything, they owe the public not justification, but an apology for their frivolousness and willingness to collaborate with such an obscure character whose background they could and should have been better informed about. The same goes for Kiracovski, who was probably the only contact person between Jovanovski and the key people in Bitola, believing he was helping some useful project. For Kostadinov, on the other hand, I don’t even think that can be said, because the guy looks like just a model in this company.

Now, Frosina Remenski, on the other hand, is something else. She is formally a member of the leadership of the International Association. She is said to have been, along with Mandic, an “ideologist” of the Boki 13’s program, but also of the retirement tourism program. I do not know if this is true, but at the events of the International Association, she is at the forefront, as well as at some informal parties.

Unofficially I found out that the mentioned Jasna Mandic is an interesting person and she is related in some way to Radmila Sekerinska, the SDSM deputy president. I do not insinuate much and I do not want to make soap opera out of Mandic’s friendly connection with Sekerinska’s husband, through third parties. Friendships are a normal thing and are neither crime nor abuse per se. Aside from the fact that Maria Jankovska, one of the founders of the International Association, is Sekerinska’s sister-in-law. And that can be just an ordinary coincidence. But given the not so joyous circumstances, I think Sekerinska still owes us an explanation as to whether these relations may have contributed to Mandic becoming a member of the National Coordination Body for the Implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in the Republic of North Macedonia.