Refusal to Probe Police Minister Angers Macedonia Opposition

Macedonia's opposition Social Democratic Party, SDSM, has accused Chief Prosecutor Marko Zvrlevski of deliberately choosing a national holiday to let slip that the Police Minister will be not investigated for corruption.

The announcement emerged over the August 2 holiday of St Elijah,  Ilinden in Macedonian, when Macedonia celebrates one of its biggest national vacations.

In May, the SDSM filed corruption charges against Police Minister Gordana Jankuloska on two criminal accounts of misuse of office and of tax evasion. 

The SDSM says she illegally accepted a cash donation of €80,000 for her party, VMRO DPMNE, in 2006.

The prosecution said there was no evidence of a crime because in 2006, when the alleged crime took place, she was the party secretary general and thus not in charge of financial transactions.

“In order for a criminal act, misuse in office,  to exist…  the culprit has to be an official who has the authorization within the legal subject, the political party VMRO DPMNE, trusted to him by law or regulation… Jankuloska at that time, for this particular act, did not have that legal status," the prosecution office said.

It also refused to further investigate a second allegation of tax evasion because it said “there is no evidence that money was received and illegally retained” by Jankuloska and thus charges of evasion in paying taxes were irrelevant.

The opposition insists that the prosecution was influenced by the ruling party and failed to examine all the presented evidence.

 “Is any official in any party allowed to take €80,000 in cash? In a speedy procedure Zvrlevski discards our evidence in the form of cash receipt with a VMRO DPMNE stamp and a signature on it, without...