Prime Minister Zoran Zaev announced today at the press conference that the draft-Law on Public Prosecution will be lodged next week at the Parliament. It plans the integration of the Special Public Prosecution into the new Public Prosecution, which altogether would form a new institution that will be named as Public Prosecution For Organized Crime and High Corruption. At the helm of this institution, Zoran Zaev proposed Prosecutor Vilma Ruskoska.
“The Law on Public Prosecution will be submitted to all political parties and the public. SPO will be integrated into the current Public Prosecution. The prosecutors, the investigators, the investigation center, the archive – all of it will become a part of the new Public Prosecution for Organized Crime and High Corruption. The mandate of the SPO prosecutors is going to expire in September 2020 but they will have the right to apply again” said Zaev.
He said that he thinks that the Law of Public Prosecution will pass with a two-thirds majority at the Parliament since all of the opposition’s objections and those of the working parliamentary groups were inserted inside.
The Prime Minister also said that with the new Public Prosecution For Organized Crime and High Corruption a structure and resources in its new form is secured without the possibility for the politicians to have any influence.
“All of the cases that the SPO has authority over will continue to be represented by the new Public Prosecution For Organized Crime and High Corruption in this phase that they are now. A guarantee for the independent functioning is financial independence and the public prosecutor will be proposing the draft budget of this institution without any possibility of the government to have any influence over it. The independence of the institution is also guaranteed by the 2/3 majority where the institution’s leading prosecutor will be able to be changed from its position only with 2/3 majority at the Council of Public Prosecutors” said Zaev.
Regarding the cancelation of today’s leaders’ meeting, Zaev asked whether VMRO-DPMNE and Hristijan Mickoski are honest about their intentions to participate in processes concerning the European future, the rule of law and the clearing out of any crime.
