Macedonia Prosecutor Slammed Over PM ‘Bribery’ Case

Prominent anti-corruption NGO Transparency Macedonia, TM, a prominent anti-corruption NGO, condemned the decision by the chief prosecutor Marko Zvrlevski not to proceed with the case against Gruevki, who is accused of taking a bribe of 1.5 million euro to expedite the sale of Makedonska Banka AD to Serbian businessman Jovica Stefanovic, aka ‘Gazda Nini’ (‘Nini the Boss’) in 2004.

“This prosecutor’s decision in the case of Makedonska Banka only cements the condition of a zombie-state where laws exist but are clinically dead,” TM said in a statement.

Zvrlevski has issued a press statement in which he said that “there is no legal grounds for opening an investigation” because more than ten years have passed since the case was reported which makes the accusations “out of date”, according to the criminal law.

Under Macedonian law, a criminal case may become obsolete after ten years if the law does not envisage more than ten years in jail for the crime in question.

TM said that Zvrlevski’s explanation was absurd.

“Having in mind that the payment [concerning the sale of the bank] was agreed in 11 instalments, the legal deadline [for the case becoming obsolete] expires in December this year.  Hence, the main pillar of Zvrlevski’s explanation does not stand because we have an act in continuity,” TM said.

The case was first revealed by the opposition in mid-April, amid the campaign for the general elections that Gruevski’s VMRO DPMNE party won.

The party flatly denied the allegations and Gruevski is now suing the opposition SDSM party leader Zoran Zaev for 500,000 euro for slander.

The opposition produced documents of financial transactions as well as legal papers...