Vanhoutte: Stop all speculations and allow the regular prosecution to do its work

Whatever might have happened in the Office of the Special Prosecutor, it is important to stop all speculations and allow the regular prosecution to do its work, he said in a Facebook post.

In case there is abuse of power, Vanhoutte said, the people who where involved in it should be convicted. “But stop the rumors!”

“Analyzing what is happening, my first question is: why is this suddenly coming to the surface? Who is behind it? Did Katica Janeva probably touch certain people who believed they were untouchable and above the law? In reply to the question “who has an interest in this happening”, I could provide a long list with names, but this will not help the country forward.”

According to him, the politicians messed it up completely. Instead of guaranteeing an impartial and independent justice, the expert said, politicians from all parties continued with their personal fights and forgot about the importance of a correct implementation of basic democratic principles, such as separation of powers and the need to have an independent judiciary.

“It just proves that there is a long way to go. I can only hope that today and tomorrow, once again a civil society will wake up and demand basic democratic values to be respected at all times, even by politicians. And finally, whatever happens, the investigations into the wiretaps have to continue. That is the burden of the past, but one should never forget what happened and make sure that those who were involved in it, including Mr. Gruevski, are prosecuted properly and eventually convicted.”

“Both the EU and Mr. Orban should be aware one can not grant such a person asylum and at the same time demand North Macedonia to respect Rule of Law. So let’s fix this as well!,”  wrote Vanhoutte on Facebook.