Zoran Zaev’s former chief of staff Dragi Raskovski, who is one of the few SDSM party officials who were investigated for the rampant corruption of their regime over the past five years, also welcomed the arrival of a US team of sanctions experts. Current SDSM office holders were among the first to declare their willingness to cooperate with the American team, as the Embassy accused current officials of corruption and said that the situation is not tolerable.

Raskovski is charged with several relatively low level crimes – at least compared to the offenses he was alleged in as Zaev’s right hand man. He was suspected of rigging a major contract to procure air traffic control radars, and of linking Zaev with a Montenegrin businessman with ties to Russia to develop a huge lot of land in Tetovo. But the charges against him are that the ordered the Government to purchase a piece of software he himself developed, and that he took a cut from the salaries of people he employed in the Government.

All of us, sentenced, aquited, charged, suspected.. from the opposition and the ruling coalition and politically undetermined, we are happy about the arrival of the US team that should help us fight corruption. This joy defeats the way the system works for over 30 years, Raskovski writes in a statement in which he implies that he is being charged unfairly.

He then points to examples of US law which regulate forensic testimonies. Raskovski alleges that the way forensics evidence against him was used in his trial should be investigated.