Macedonia Ex-PM's Trial to Hear 1,000 Covert Wiretaps

More than 1,000 previously unreleased wiretapped audio recordings are expected to be heard on Friday and next week at the ongoing trial of former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and other former government officials who are charged with allegedly masterminding electoral fraud in 2013.

On Thursday, at the resumption of the trial which came after nearly two months' pause, the Special Prosecution, SJO, said it had amassed a total of 1,063 wiretapped conversations between officials as evidence. 

The SJO asked, and the court agreed, that seven of them be played without the presence of the public in the courtroom, as they contain private conversations. 

The defence on Thursday attempted to prevent the playing of the recordings, arguing before the court that they cannot be seen as valid evidence. The court rejected this. 

In the high-profile cases that the SJO codenamed 'Titanic', Gruevski and 11 other people, including former ministers, are charged with organising widespread electoral fraud during the polls in 2013, when their VMRO DPMNE party was in power. The VMRO DPMNE won the elections.

Gruevski is charged on three counts: criminal association, for which he is faces a jail sentence from one to five years; misuse of assets during an election campaign, for which the lowest sentence is five years, and violation of the freedom of voters, for which the minimum jail sentence is three years.

Former Interior Minister Gordana Jankulovska, former Transport Minister Mile Janakieski, and the former chief of Gruevski's office, Martin Protugjer, are also standing trial among more than 20 accused.

They are charged with several offences, ranging from criminal association to violation of electoral rights, violation of the...