Skopje's Criminal Court

Skopje's Criminal Court, on Thursday sentenced former Secretary General of the Government Dragi Rashkovski to eight years' jail in a first-instance verdict. He was found guilty of abuse of office and money laundering in the case known in North Macedonia as the "Software" case.

The alleged wrongdoing went back even further than 2011.

MakTel once dominated the mobile market in North Macedonia, operating since 2001 as a joint venture between the state and Magyar Telekom, the Hungarian subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom. Its only competitor was the far smaller Cosmote network.

In one case, a lay judge failed to declare that she was the sister of the defence lawyer. The resignation or retirement of a lay judge, by law, returns the trial to the beginning, costing often months or even years of court time.

Thirty people, including the former interior minister and police chief Mitko Cavkov, five opposition MPs, police employees and activists, went on trial on Wednesday, accused of storming Macedonia's parliament on April 27 last year.

Skopje's Criminal Court on Thursday jailed 65-year-old Pance Angelov for four years for taking part in the mob assault on parliament in April that injured several MPs.

He was seen in video footage from parliament violently pulling the hair of then MP, now Defence Minister, Radmila Sekerinska.

Within the next few days, Macedonia's Court of Appeals will review the decisions made by Skopje's Criminal Court not to allow the detention of Gruevski and some of his associates.

The Special Prosecution, SJO said on Tuesday it will start filing appeals against the Criminal Court's decisions on Wednesday.

Recent sudden reassignments of judges from Skopje's Criminal Court are a politically motivated move designed to prevent reputable judges from handling high-level crime cases opened by the Special Prosecution, SJO, some judges say.

In a move that took many on Tuesday by surprise, the court's temporary head, Tatjana Mihajlova, reassigned some 20 judges from the court.

According to the Special Prosecution, SJO, the police officers standing trial attempted to cover-up their department's involvement in illegally listening in on thousands of conversations between politicians, activists, journalists and their associates.

The head of Skopje's Criminal Court, Vladimir Pancevski, who has been involved in controversy over accusations that he has obstructed the work of the Special Prosecution, SJO, expressed surprise on Thursday at claims that he might be sued by another judge for exerting undue pressure on him.