Macedonia Court to Rule on Trial for Zaev

Lawyers for Zaev and the other defendants in the case want the Skopje Criminal Court to dismiss the charges against them and confirm that grounds for criminal prosecution and a trial do not exist.

At the open session of the court's council aimed at "reviewing the prosecution", which is an obligatory phase before a trial starts, the court to review the plea of the defence before deciding whether to send the case to trial.

"We will demand that the court discards the prosecution case because no criminal act took place," Zaev's defence told BIRN.

In January, Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski used a nationwide TV address to accuse Zaev of attempting a coup.

The Social Democrat leader was later charged with "blackmail and and violence against top state officials" and ordered to surrender his passport.

Gruevski said Zaev had threatened to publish compromising data from wiretapped conversations of state officials - that he allegedly obtained from unnamed foreign secret services - unless a caretaker government was formed that included his own party.

The prosecution pressed charges against four other people in the same case, "after a thorough investigation and analysis of all the gathered evidence and facts".

Former secret police chief Zoran Verusevski is charged with "illegal surveillance and recording", "espionage" and "violence against top state officials" while a former secret police employee, Gjorgi Lazarevski, Verusevski's wife, Sonja, and Branko Polifrov, an employee in Strumica municipality where Zaev is mayor, are charged as accomplices.

They have all been in detention since January. The police are still searching for Verusevski's son in relation to the case.

Zaev, who started releasing the tapes...