“I will answer all questions during the court proceedings, which will be public and transparent for the national and international public, and I urge you all to follow the case”. This was a statement made by the former Prime minister and current leader of the VMRO-DPMNE, Nikola Gruevski on January 31st, last year. The same day the Ministry Of Interior announced the “Putsch” case and criminal charges against SDSM leader, Zoran Zaev for illegal wiretapping and violence against high ranking state officials.
Since then, Gruevski has not once appeared in court for the “Putsch” case, even though Special Public Prosecutor, Katica Janeva, after taking over the case in December of last year, has repeatedly insisted that the VMRO-DPMNE leader attend the court hearing, as the only witness, but despite her best efforts, he claims he has yet to receive a summons from the court.
“I will answer all questions in the court proceedings, which will be public and transparent for the national and international public, and I urge you all to follow the case and see the evidence for yourselves, and recognize the speculation. From today, you will hear all sorts of speculation, but the truth about everything will come to light”, said Gruevski in a statement at the time. His statement is the only trace of his public address to the public on January 31, 2015, which can be found on the Government’s official website.
Whether there will be public and transparent judicial proceedings in the “Putsch” case, where the truth shall be unveiled about the wiretapping, Gruevski reiterated in his second speech on February 25, 2015, weeks after the SDSM began releasing “bombs” in public.
“… In this context, I want to emphasize that in this case no need to rush to any decisions and conclusions. The procedure, which, as I said before, should be transparent, and everything will come to light. No one should be tried in advance, without knowing the details and circumstances of these created materials and without establishing the truth through judicial proceedings … Questions have been asked such as whether the conversations of senior officials from the government are real which were published by Zaev… Whether they trustworthy or not, this will be confirmed by court proceedings through a legal procedure and in accordance with the law for such matters. I will not get into the truthfulness of the materials which have been engineered and published illegally or who is part of the process … “, said Gruevski.
The trial, which was meant to be held yesterday, was postponed again, this time indefinitely, and the reason for this was due to the fact that two of the new jurors did not have security certificates for the case.
This sparked a furious reaction from Special Public Prosecutor Katica Janeva. “What is this? You cannot postpone the trial indefinitely. You should be ashamed of yourselves, for a whole year you have postponed this case and have manipulated the public”, Janeva said to Judge Baševska with her voice raised.
More reactions came from the lawyer of the accused, Filip Medarski, who asked the judge to say whether she had summoned the only witness in the case, former Prime Minister, Nikola Gruevski, however, he did receive an answer.
