The SPO targets Buckovski, he claims there are no crooks


The Special Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Magyar Telekom trial unveiled the unofficial document, a non-paper, which confirms that former Prime Minister Vlado Buckovski, DUI leader Ali Ahmeti and former DUI minister Musa Xhaferi received 7.5 million euros to postpone the introduction of a third mobile operator in North Macedonia.
This document was quoted before the public while the SPO Prosecutor Lile Stefanova interrogated former Minister of Transport and Communications, Xhemali Mehazi, who was summoned as a witness.

– Do you know that 2.5 million euros according to the informal document should have been paid to the representative of the A party, the Government represented by Buckovski and 5 million euros to” friends from Tetovo” A.A. and M.J.? – asked Stefanova.

But, at yesterday’s hearing, Mehazi could barely remember anything, even though he had signed a cooperation protocol between the Macedonian government and Makedonski Telekom (Macedonian Telecom) as the minister in charge.

I’ve never heard of such steps. I have never heard that there is such an agreement, nor that there has been a bargaining for such a thing, said the witness.

“As I have previously stated, I was not part of the government when this document was prepared, but only when I had to sign the cooperation protocol in as the competent Minister of Transport and Communications. Since I did not have this document for examination when I said that I do not remember, but I see it now, at that time i was told that I should sign it because as a Government we are shareholders in the then-Makedonski Telekom,” said Mehazi.

Asked whether it was his signature, and whether it was that the protocol he had signed, the witness said that a lot of time has passed since then and he did not remember the content, but that the signature looked like it was his.

“It’s been a long time and as I recall the content I read the signature should be mine, but I do not know either when I signed it or where it was kept,” said the witness.

With the disclosure of this document, and as a witness next week, on March 27, Slobodan Bogoeski was summoned to the court, who in his testimony before the US authorities for the first time mentioned the names of the three politicians who allegedly took bribes, the SPO gives signals that he targets Buckovski. Prosecutor Lile Stefanova says that these persons are subject to a preliminary investigation and she is not allowed to share information about them.

Former Prime Minister Buckovski observes the trial of this case and calls it an Ustasha-Stalinist manipulation from the kitchen of the former head of intelligence, Bogoeski. In a statement for Nezavisen Vesnik/Independent daily newspaper, Buckovski said the SPO is abusing the case to improve the chances of its final status now being resolved.

“From my perspective, today the masks fell off. I held the document in my hands when I testified before the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington in February 2014, which was shown by the prosecutor Stefanova. Document typed on a white sheet of paper without signatures and initials. It is an Ustasha-Stalinist manipulation, I’m sorry that the SPO is using such methods. There are no crooks,” claims Buckovski.

Former Prime Minister awaits Bogoeski’s testimony and has announced a criminal charge against him for giving a false statement.

“This witch hunt in Macedonia should stop once and for all. If there was such a thing they would have been a ruling in New York, they wouldn’t have to cut deals. These deals are ridiculous in New York. A lawyer’s daily wage is higher than those deals, because they realized that there was no evidence. Bogoeski’s testimony reflects his character, Udba agent and Stalinist who would do anything for his own interests. There is nothing there. There is no non-paper, this document not only has no legal effect, no signature, there is nothing there, this non-paper was created in Bogoeski’s kitchen,” says Buckovski.

According to him, this case has nothing to do with the wiretapped conversations.

“This is used intentionally in the wake of the resolution of the final status of the SPO. I am unpleasantly surprised by the prosecutor’s unprofessionalism. Her behavior is scandalous. We learn this in our first year of law school, she is talking about four directors who are charged, what kind of questions for non-papers, what kind of questions for the rest, focus on what is there,” claims Buckovski.

The Skopje Prosecutor’s Office for a long time didn’t want to hand over the Magyar Telekom case to the SPO with the explanation that they were not connected, nor were they derived from the contents of the illegally wiretapped conversations. The Special Public Prosecutor’s Office took over this case after June 30, 2017 and since it was taken after the deadline, it is uncertain whether this case will survive before the Supreme Court, or what will happen to it depending on how the political parties will resolve the SPO’s future status.
Criminal charges were filed in Macedonia against four foreign nationals in December 2008, several years before the Americans did so. General Manager of Makedonski Telekom, Atila Sendrey, Finance Director Rolf Plat, and Mihael Kefaloianis and Zoltan Kishius were the accused foreign nationals.

Frosina Fakova – Serafinovic