Court rejects the defense’s request to stop the procedure in the “Titanic” case
The trial in the “Titanic” case resumed today with the reading of the evidence collected by the Special Prosecutor’s Office and now taken over by the Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime and Corruption. Before the hearing, defense lawyer Elenko Milanov said the authorization of prosecutor Lile Stefanova goes against the law on the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Lawyer Milanov said the case can be represented only by a prosecutor from the prosecutor’s office for organized crime and corruption.
Prosecutor Stefanova, a former prosecutor in the SPO, has been transferred back to her original prosecutor’s office in Radovish but has continued to prosecute the “Titanic” case upon an authorization from State Public Prosecutor Ljubomir Joveski.
Suspect Ilija Dimovski asked the court to stop the procedure in the case until the situation related to the prosecutor’s involvement is resolved.
The court rejected the defense request by saying that prosecutor Stefanova presented a document authorizing her to continue prosecuting the case.
“Titanic”, the first SPO case, refers to crimes related to election irregularities. Twenty-one individuals are indicted in the case, including former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, former Interior Minister Gordana Jankuloska, former Minister of Transport and Communications Mile Janakieski, former PM’s office chief Martin Protugjer and former Government Secretary-General Kiril Bozhinovski. They are suspected of criminal association, violation of voting rights, violation of the freedom of choice, election bribes, destruction of election materials and abuse of election campaign funds.