For the scandal of fixing the telephone voting of Festival “Skopje 2014”, which took place in November last year, on which our representative for “Eurovision” song was to be selected, the public prosecutor handling the case would likely request additional six months to finalize it.
The legal limit to when the investigation needs to be completed expires in a month, and the prosecution stated for META that they investigative actions were still ongoing.
The choice of song for “Eurovision”, on which we will be represented by Daniel Kajmakovski, will be held in Vienna on 19, 21 and 23rd of May.
According to the letter sent to us by the prosecution, “due to the volume of evidence,” the public prosecutor for prosecution of organized crime and corruption may request an extension of the deadline of six months.
In the police action in November were seized 2,000 SIM cards from the three mobile operators and dozens of mobile phones through which it was voted of the festival, and four persons were suspected organizers.
Since then, there was no more new information neither from the prosecution nor MOI regarding the case and the investigation about who of the participants of the festival was favored with the fixing.
– The Public Prosecutor for prosecution of organized crime and corruption continues investigative actions regarding irregularities in voting on “Skopje Festival” last year. We await the results of the expert evidence. Given the sheer volume of evidence, the investigation is not completed and, in accordance with the law, lasts for six months. If necessary, to conduct investigative actions, the public prosecutor has the right to ask the Public Prosecutor of the Republic of Macedonia for an extension of the deadline for another six months – say representatives of the Public Prosecution.
Prosecution didn’t give a specific answer to the question whether all the first suspects in the case had given statements before the competent prosecutor for crimes charged.
– The competent public prosecutor evaluated when and during which stage will summon the suspects for questioning – say from prosecution for META.
Police found the involved in the scandal immediately after the event, which was held on 12th of November last year.
As organizers of the group intended to fix the voting results, the police suspects J.J., composer and songwriter, K.S. and I.S. of the famous production company “Plan B” and B.V., owner of the company “Videx”, which organized the telephone vote. They are suspected of criminal association and computer fraud.
Three of them were taken to the police station, where, according to MOI, they remained silent, after which they were released. The fourth from the group, J.J. was out of the country, i.e. on study in the US, as reported the media at the time.
As the then Assistant Minister for Public Relations of the Ministry of Interior Ivo Kotevski emphasized at a press conference, the organizers aim was “to affect the results of the vote, i.e. the first three places for which the total prize fund, provided by the Ministry of Culture, amounts to 45,000 euros.”
The first prize of the festival was won by Daniel Kajmakovski, with which he became Macedonian representative for the song selection for “Eurovision”, while the second prize went to Tamara Todevska.
A month after the scandal, the prosecution came out with an announcement for the case, in which it was stated that the first two places were won with regular voice.
