Supreme Court dismisses requests for judges’ exemption

The Supreme Court dismissed requests for exempting judges of the Court of Appeals and the Criminal Court filed by defense lawyers of the defendants in the case codenamed Titanic of the Special Public Prosecution. The court rejected them as being ‘groundless.’

Earlier in the day, the trial of the defendants charged with electoral fraud was adjourned until May 9, because the Supreme Court hadn’t announced its decision on the motion for exemption of the judges. The defense based its motion on the possibility of the trial judges to have been subjected to wiretapping.

Twenty-one individuals are indicted in the case, including former prime minister Nikola Gruevski, former minister of interior Gordana Jankuloska, former minister of transport and communications Mile Janakieski, former PM’s office chief Martin Protogjer and former government secretary-general Kiril Bozinovski.

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 in 2012.