Today, the Special Prosecutor’s Office filed 17 indictments for 18 cases, against 94 individuals and 7 legal entities, stated the chief Special Prosecutor, Katica Janeva, adding that solid evidence has been provided for all the cases.
She noted that the time-frame for investigations and enquiries was not long enough for all the material to be investigated, especially considering that the SPO was established on September 15th, 2015, and has only been working for 10 months.
Janeva said that indictments were not filed for the cases “Thaler” and “Tabla”, while the cases “Target” and “Fortress” were merged into one case. She pointed out that due to the short deadline and the large workload for the “Thaler” case, no charges were filed, but that they will continue to work and expressed confidence that they will file charges in the case.
“The SPO will continue the investigation of the “Thaler” case for the illegal financing of a party. The deadlines that were given to us, do not allow us to undertake investigative action so that the investigative procedure can be completed”, said Janeva, adding that after investigating all the actions of the case, experts should determine the facts of the situation.
When asked why the SPO did not open the “Monster” case, Janeva said that she expects the Council of Public Prosecutors to hand over the case to the them, so they can decide whether the SPO are responsible for the case.
“Due to lack of cooperation, we have not been able to continue work that is in our jurisdiction. There are many cases that may need to be opened. However, I determine the rhythm of the SPO. I did not decide to open “Skopje 2014”, where the rights of all citizens of Macedonia are at risk”, said Janeva.
She pointed out that July 1st does not mean an end to the work of the SPO, because the prosecutor’s mandate is five years and she emphasized that they will continue to work with the institutions on how to deal with these new cases. However, she expressed hope that Article 22 of the Law on the SPO will be terminated, which will limit the period as to when the SPO can open new investigations.
Janeva stressed that all cases should be processed by some sort of urgent procedure and that there are more requests for custody, including a “leader of a political party” and added that the court will have to decide on these cases within 24 hours.
