1 It’s disheartening when a supreme judge and a member of the Council of Public Prosecutors accept a bribe of 15,000 euros from a defendant to manipulate a court case in his favour. What’s even more disheartening is that, even though they were caught in their secret dealings, their colleagues sentenced them to the minimal possible punishment simply because they both pleaded guilty.
Supreme Judge Nakje Georgiev was sentenced to just 3 years in prison instead of the maximum 10 years, while the member of the Council of Public Prosecutors, Ixhet Memeti, received a suspended sentence of one year provided he doesn’t commit another crime within the next three years. In other words, they won’t be able to ask for bribes for the next three years.
Nakje Georgiev is a Supreme Judge. Supreme. His position is self-explanatory. He’s the one who decides on appeals from all verdicts in lower courts. Ixhet Memeti is a member of the Council of Public Prosecutors. He elects and dismisses prosecutors. Previously, in two terms, he served as the Ombudsman for 16 years. He defended citizens’ rights. He was also the Minister of Justice in two different governments, those led by Ljubcho Georgievski and Hari Kostov.
They aren’t just any ordinary officials caught accepting bribes. They were undermining the legal system. Did they swear before the court that this was the first time they had taken bribes? Have their fellow public prosecutors and judges investigated whether this was their first offense? And finally, what kind of message does this judge-prosecutor behaviour send to the other judges, prosecutors, and officials… Steal, if you’re caught, plead guilty, and won’t have to face a severe penalty.
2 It appears that Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski is continuing with his amnesia therapy. Commenting on the latest scandals in the judiciary, he stated that “some notebooks from the past have been replaced with others from Strumica, Bihachka Street and Mala Rechica.” Which past is he referring to exactly? A distant past from 1903? Or perhaps the past from 2006 to 2017, when those notebooks were created in Skopje, the White Palace and Mala Rechica under Nikola Gruevski’s government, when Mickoski himself held a prominent position?
From which part of Mickoski’s subconscious did these notebooks pop up? As a phrase, the notebooks were established in the political vocabulary and the collective memory when we heard about them in the wiretapped conversations during VMRO-DPMNE’s rule under Gruevski. We heard them being used to elect and appoint judges, we heard the then-president of the Judicial Council dictating the names of judicial candidates to the Prime Minister’s secretary and we heard the Minister of Internal Affairs checking off names in her notebook.
Mickoski is right in saying the judicial system needs to be reformed. To be honest, I couldn’t care less if he dissolves the current Judicial Council and the Council of Public Prosecutors. But despite all the optimism, which I lack, and despite the seven-year gap, I still remember the court practices during the 11-year rule of VMRO-DPMNE and DUI. Frankly, I’m afraid that Mickoski’s proposal to dissolve the Councils isn’t a change to the system. It’s merely an act of replacing people. We know how those judges and prosecutors were appointed back then, they didn’t just appear out of thin air. It’s a case of our gang will replace your gang. That doesn’t apply just to judges and prosecutors, but to anyone on the state payroll.
Since, in our country, a change in government doesn’t mean there’ll be political will to change the system. What it actually means is that people in state positions will be replaced with other names. Notebooks, schmotebooks.
3 How can we believe this won’t just be a case of replacing the notebooks when Minister of Health Arben Taravari posted on Facebook that they’re “working on a way to release” Blerim Ramadani from Kosovo, who was arrested and placed under extradition custody because he was on Interpol’s list at Serbia’s request as a war crimes suspect for his role as а soldier in the Kosovo Liberation Army? And then, after he was released from custody and placed under house arrest as a guest at a relative’s home, Taravari wrote: “I welcome the release of the ex-KLA soldier, Blerim Ramadani! His release was a mission we accomplished, and his freedom brings us all joy!” And Ramadani, true to the quote “Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days,” left his “guest arrest” and went home, in Kosovo.
The decision to release Ramadani was made by the Judge Pajazit Pajaziti of the Criminal Court in Skopje.
Pajazit Pajaziti is the same judge who decided to approve the plea deal between the Prosecutor’s Office with Ixhet Memeti, so that he’d receive just a one-year suspended sentence for brokering bribes.
Pajazit Pajaziti is the same judge who didn’t approve the request of the Prosecutor’s Office to detain Bekim Neziri, the head of DUI’s Chair branch, and seven other thugs, who on January 4 this year, stormed the Control Tower of the Skopje Airport and beat up an air traffic controller because he showed solidarity with colleagues in the Trade Union against political appointments.
Is anything unclear about all this?
4 One of the names that was taken from those notebooks is Afrona Vervizoli, a bank employee whom the Government appointed as the chief auditor of IPA funds for EU aid. After it was revealed that Vervizoli didn’t have the necessary qualifications to be the chief auditor of how EU money is spent, the Government dismissed her just a few days later and appointed another staff member as acting director.
It wasn’t offensive that the Government appointed a party member who isn’t fit and up to the task for a key position. Vervizoli is neither the first nor the last to be appointed that way to such a responsible position. However, it was offensive that after her name was taken from the party notebook, the “VLEN” coalition announced that she was temporarily replaced by another member of our ranks.” Without batting an eye. While dividing the spoils, it was agreed that the position would be “ours.” No matter if she’s good enough or not, we’ll wait for Vervizoli to obtain the necessary qualifications and ensure that the position stays “ours.”
Then, how about we amend the Constitution. Let the Constitution state that if you want to advance in your civil service career, you have to be a party member, regardless of your education, professionalism and abilities. That way, the rest of the citizens who don’t want to be tied to parties won’t be misled. In other words, securing state positions would become a constitutionally guaranteed right for the illiterate fools in the party notebooks. They’re the only ones the parties care about anyway.
5 The Assembly adopted the Budget rebalancing. Although discussions on the Budget usually take three days, the voting took place quickly because the opposition SDSM had only one person speak at the rostrum, the former Prime Minister and former leader of the party, Dimitar Kovachevski. He said that they weren’t going to vote for the Budget but also that they wouldn’t delay the discussion.
Well done! That’s the kind of opposition any government would wish for. Having three days at their disposal to talk as much as they want, to debate about the Budget and about anything else, only to give up the debate altogether. They had three days of open microphones and access to the rostrum , yet had nothing to say. In 2012, when VMRO-DPMNE was in power, exactly when the budget was being adopted, they literally physically kicked the SDSM MPs out of the Assembly.
Out of eighteen SDSM MPs, was there really no one who had anything to say about the rebalancing? Among the six MPs from Levica, five spoke from the rostrum. Weren’t they at least bothered by something in their sectors? How come the former Vice Prime Minister for Economy, Fatmir Bytyqi, didn’t make a single remark about the Budget? What about the former Director of the Internal Revenue Service, Sanja Lukarevska? The former Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, Jovanka Trenchovska? The former Minister of Culture, Bisera Kostadinova – Stojchevska? What about Venko Filipche? It would have been nice to at least see the new leader of SDSM appear at the rostrum.
Perhaps they’re still offended about losing the elections and are thinking: Why bother reading the Budget when we all know they’ll adopt it? For whose sake should we read it? The people who punished us in the elections? Let them see what it’s like with VMRO in power.
Their low spirits are really encouraging for the few voters who remain loyal to them. As for everyone else – whether with or without SDSM, you’ll manage just fine.
