Janeva: The Court Unjustly Postponed The “Putsch” Case, and Has Not Summoned Gruevski

Today, the hearing of the “Putsch” case was postponed, due to the absence of one of the jurors, reported the Criminal Court. This was the official explanation of the court for the postponement of today’s hearing, which was rescheduled for November 1.

Special Public Prosecutor Katica Janeva, who represents the prosecution in this case, stated that the court unjustly postponed today’s hearing due to one of the two jurors who was apparently ill, she added that this is contrary to the Law on Criminal Procedure.

Janeva also reacted to the court after they failed to call the only witness in the case (Nikola Gruevski), which for her is unacceptable.

From outside the court, she said, the explanation and reasoning by the court is that there is no need to send a summons to the witness at this stage of the proceedings.

“I find it inexcusable and unacceptable that today journalists were not allowed to enter the courtroom. I hope that at the next hearing, journalists will be allowed to enter the courtroom and hear what I have to say in court”, said Janeva.

She says that the period of a month and a half, until the next scheduled hearing is too long and that it is wrong to delay such an important case.

When asked by reporters, what is the reason for the postponement of the trial, Janeva said that the question should be put toVladimir Panchevski, the President of the Basic Court Skopje 1.

The SDSM leader Zoran Zaev, said that the postponement of today’s hearing is evidence that the court is violating the law, “because of some far-stretched policies”.

“Today’s hearing was postponed because the only witness, Nikola Gruevski does not want to appear, and the court did not send a summons, inventing excuses for the alleged inability of one of the two jurors to attend the hearing. We all know that if the court was informed that a juror might not attend, they would immediately request his replacement”, said Zaev.

When he was asked about his expectations about the processing of the two indictments that were submitted by the SPO, Zaev said he did not want to comment on the work of the court, but that he firmly believes the majority of judges are professional and honest people.

At today’s hearing, along with the SDSM leader Zoran Zaev, other defendants in the “Putsch” case were present, such as the former Director of the Security and Counterintelligence Agency (UBK) Zoran Verusevski, his wife, Sonja Verusevski, Georgi Lazarevski and Branko Palifrov.

They are charged with espionage, illegal wire- tapping and violence against high-ranking officials.