“Monster” case: You can’t even catch a wingless bird

In this country, even if a wingless bird ran away you wouldn’t be able to catch it. This angry reaction by a mother of one of the five victims killed at Smilkovo Lake seven years ago, after yesterday’s postponement of the “Monster” hearing yesterday, in one sentence, described the failure of the system that stalled the trials. At yesterday’s hearing, Dragi Ivanovski and Dime Veskov witnesses were summoned to give a statement at the previous trial. The court sent out invitations, but the police did not inform the court that they could not conduct them, and why they could not take the witnesses to court. The second judge of the trial council, Osman Shabani, immediately took the phone in his hands and stared calling the Butel police station and at the Gazi Baba police station, where the witnesses were supposed to be before showing up to court. Several minutes later, officials from the Butel police station called and notified that Ivanovski had not received his court invitation and that they learned from his neighbors that he had moved and that his house is deteriorating. However, his address was not formally changed and the invitation reached the address where he did not live. From the police station Gazi Baba did not receive a notification, so the present in the courtroom guessed where witness Veskov was. Prosecutors suspected that he was in prison somewhere, and the attorney of some of the defendants, Naser Raufi, replied “I don’t think that he is in jail. If he were in jail he would have called me to defend him”.
At the same time, while the search for the “Monster” witnesses was undergoing, in the courtroom one floor above, the hearing for “Magyar Telekom” was also adjourned. The key witness in this case Slobodan Bogoeski, who was supposed to testify, did not receive his court invitation as well, and did not make an appearance in court.  City officials had changed the apartment building number, so the invitation was sent to a different address, according to an ID card. The attorney of one of the defendants asked one of the lay judges to be exempt from the trial council because she loudly laughed at one of the previous hearings while he had a presentation. When asked why she laughed, she responded that she was laughing at something she was thinking of at the moment, and that it was not related to the trial. Now the judge’s situation will be decided by the president of the Criminal Court, and in the meantime the court will continue to look for Bogoeski, who allegedly traveled to Bulgaria on regular basis. And while the cases of the Special Public Prosecutor’s Office used to be regularly scheduled and held, now there is a problem with providing witnesses. “How was it possible for Judge Kacarska to convict so many April 27 defendants in just a few months, while we cannot even get witnesses to the courtroom,” asked Goran Nakjevski, father of murdered Aleksandar Nakjevski. The parents of the five murdered boys, as well as the relatives of the fisherman stood up before the court and asked the court not to play games with their case that has been dragged on for seven years and there was still no one convicted. Nakjevski, aside from the institutions, is also angry with the Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, who promised the parents that the new so-called “bombs” would reveal the truth about the “Monster” case, and that he would reveal the officials behind this case. “This case will be dragged on until you reveal the DUI officials involved in this case. DUI is the party dictating in both coalitions with VMRO-DPMNE and with SDSM. You have made immoral people out of us, while the court and politics are the immoral ones,” Nakjevski said. He demands the declassification of document with the names of the five DUI officials he claims to be involved in the case, Bekim Neziri, Safet Neziri, Nevzat Bejta, Bujar Osmani and Izet Mexhiti. Judge Ognen Stavrev promises to do everything in his power to solve the case and reassures them that doesn’t face any obstacles from anyone. Parents expect from Prime Minister Zoran Zaev to take the witness stand in the trial as well. These two witnesses proposed by the defense are among the last and soon the Special Public Prosecutor’s Office should finally deliver the so-called “bombs”. The wiretapped materials will first be submitted to the court, and then they will also have an overview of the defense.
The SPO prosecutor who leads the “Monster” case, Fatime Fetai, in a TV appearance revealed that there were thousands of recordings, messages, and transcripts that will be suggested as evidence in this case, but laso said that they will not affect the essence of it.
“There are thousands of recordings, messages, and transcripts that will certainly be suggested as evidence. I think that much of those recordings and messages will not have a significant impact, but even what I personally consider is not too important, I will propose as evidence so that there are no doubts that we are hiding something. I can guarantee that there will be an appropriate legal qualification for each person involved in this event. However, this is not a simple matter, I call on everyone willing to share information in order to get publicity, not to play with the feelings of the victims’ families, and instead come to the prosecution or the Court. As for collecting “likes” on this subject is considered quite inhumane,” Prosecutor Fetai said.
The Victims’ parents demand that hearings be scheduled more often and be effective, and according to informal talk, they expect the so-called “bombs” to finally close this case.
Alil Demiri, Afrim Ismailovic, Agim Ismailovic, Fejzi Aziri, Haki Aziri and Sami Ljuta were sentenced to life in prison for the five-time murder case dubbed “Monster”. Only the fifth defendant, Sejdi Rami, was acquitted due to lack of evidence.
The Supreme Court abolished the verdicts and released the convicted Agim Ismailovic, Haki Aziri, Sami Ljuta and Fejzi Aziri, and ordered precautionary measures. Alil Demiri and Afrim Ismailovic are still inaccessible to the court, after which international warrants have been issued. The trial that once ended with life sentences for the defendants has been reopened before new judges and prosecutors from the SPO.
On April 12, 2012, four high school graduates, Filip Slavkovski, Aleksandar Nakevski, Cvetanco Acevski, Kire Trickovski, as well as 45-year-old Borce Stevkovski, were brutally murdered at Smilkovo Lake. The murder motive remains unknown.

Frosina Fakova – Serafinovic