Sun, 8 December, 2024

With “Target”, defendants in “Putsch” case will become witnesses, and witnesses will become defendants

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What will happen to the indictment in the “Putsch” case with the opening of the new investigation by the Special Prosecutor’s Office? Will it be withdrawn, extended with new suspects, or will the people sitting in the dock as suspects, be replaced with the suspects in the “Target” case? This will become clear when the judicial process officially begins. So far, the only thing that is certain, is that the investigation into the “Target” case will have implications in the judicial process of the “Putsch” case.

This was pointed out by Fatime Fetai, the prosecutor who presented the “Target” case and was repeated by her colleague Lence Ristoska, while responding to journalists’ questions. Neither Fetai, nor Ristoska wanted to say “in what direction the implications will go in”.

At the moment, the former Director of the Administration of Security and Counterintelligence (UBK), Zoran Verushevski, his wife Sonja Verushevski, the SDSM leader Zoran Zaev, MOI official Georgi Lazarevski and Branko Palifrov, an employee of the Municipality of Strumica are all being charged in the “Putsch” case. They are being charged with crimes such as espionage, unauthorized wiretapping and violence against high ranking officials of state authorities.

Former engineer at UBK, Zvonko Kostovski has already been sentenced, who confessed to the crime and made a deal with prosecutors. However, the SPO in return for his conviction filed a request to the Supreme Court for protection of legality (known as BZZ) due to several controversial moments.

The only witness in the case is the current leader of the ruling VMRO-DPMNE and former Prime Minister, Nikola Gruevski.

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