Bojan Jovanovski

Police in North Macedonia arrested outgoing chief special prosecutor Katica Janeva on Wednesday, the latest twist in a scandal rocking the government and undermining the credibility of the country's anti-corruption drive.

Organised crime prosecutors in North Macedonia grilled the outgoing chief special prosecutor Katica Janeva for four hours on Tuesday over her alleged involvement in the so-called 'Extortion' affair that has rocked the country for weeks.

"The investigation should have reacted much sooner. It should have summoned Janeva for questioning; that is the least they could have done," a lawyer in Skopje told BIRN on Thursday on condition of anonymity.

North Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev has come under fire for calling the detained celebrity-turned-businessman Bojan Jovanovski, the central figure in the ongoing "Extortion" scandal, a "faggot".

His use of the abusive term has been widely condemned by human rights organisations and media associations in the country.

North Macedonia's government said on Tuesday that it has decided to form an "operational" anti-graft team headed by Interior Minister Oliver Spasovski and including other top officials.

The team will "work uncompromisingly and through a coordinated approach in the fight against crime and corruption", the government said in a statement.

Signalling his impatience with the unfolding "Extortion" scandal that has rocked North Macedonia in recent days, President Stevo Pendarovski on Monday called on prosecutors investigating it to "leave their summer vacations aside and get to work" in order to uncover the facts.

The Italian newspaper La Verita on Saturday published a third batch of audio recordings on YouTube - like the first two relating to North Macedonia's so-called extortion scandal - in which Prime Minister Zoran Zaev is mentioned for the first time.

The Italian newspaper La Verita, which on Thursday published a video of two suspected extortionists and their alleged victim, says the voice of the embattled chief of the Macedonian Special Prosecution, Katica Janeva, can be heard on its new upload on YouTube - which consists of eight recordings.

The main opposition party in North Macedonia has used publication of video footage that may further implicate the embattled head of the Special Prosecution, Katica Janeva, to demand early elections.

A video published by the online edition of the Italian Newspaper La Verita on Thursday has cast dramatic new light on the so-called extortion scandal that has implicated North Macedonia's chief Special Prosecutor, Katica Janeva, and dealt a blow to the credibility of this crime-busting institution.