Not even 11 million euros get the former director of the Secret Police out of prison

The council will declare whether anyone will seek responsibility for the decision of the Appeal, while this can be done by any of its members, or any other institution and after assessing the circumstances will come up with a position whether or not violations were committed during the approval of the decision.

The Court of Appeals made the decision to release Mijalkov from custody after the former director of the Secret Police had offered 11 million euros guarantee that he would not escape until the end of the lawsuits against him.

This decision provoked numerous reactions, including from the Ministry of Justice.

“The decision of the Court of Appeals reduces the trust of citizens in the courts. Mijalkov was a person at potential risk of escape. “The judges who made the decision must be held accountable to the public on what basis they made such a decision and in what form they will take responsibility in case Mijalkov escapes”, it is said in the reaction of the Minister of Justice, Bojan Maricic.

Mijalkov, a family member and one of the closest associates of former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, who fled to Hungary, has been convicted of three offenses, ranging from 12, 8 and 3 years in prison respectively.

On March 8, 2019, Sasho Mijallkov was sentenced to 3 years in prison for the case “Titanic 2”, spoiling the election result in cooperation with a member of the State Election Commission.

On February 26, 2021, the Criminal Court of Skopje sentenced the former head of the Secret Police to 12 years in prison for the criminal offenses of “Criminal Union”, “Illegal Eavesdropping” and “Destruction of Eavesdropping Equipment”.

Saho Mijalkov received his last sentence on April 13, 2021, when he was sentenced to 8 years in prison for the well-known case, “Trezor”, specifically for misappropriation of 780,000 euros for the purchase of wiretapping equipment.

A lawsuit is currently being filed against him for the purchase of several plots in an area of ​​Skopje, and Mijalkov is also a suspect.

It was this trial that prevented Mijalkov from being released from custody, as the trial panel in this case, less than an hour after the decision of the Court of Appeals on his release, imposed the measure of detention for 30 days. This prevented Mijalkov from being released from custody.

However, the decision of the Court of Appeals continues to be criticized, while responsibility is also demanded from the judges, as in two other cases, Mijalkov had offered a guarantee of over 10 million euros, but his request was rejected.

“The entire Macedonian public witnessed a strong blow to justice by the judges of the Court of Appeals in Skopje. “We expect the judges who made such a decision to come out publicly and say how it is possible to release someone who has been sentenced to almost 20 years in prison for various criminal offenses,” said the SDSM spokeswoman. Bogdanka Kuzeska.

Meanwhile, VMRO DPMNE called the decision to release Sasho Mijallkov and the reaction of SDSM “free theater”, for the needs of daily politics.

“This is not an old thing, except a theater free from those who run the judiciary. The Transparency International report on the perception of corruption and crime speaks about the location of the judiciary, ranking Northern Macedonia 111th. “We will always see such free theaters when SDSM, Zoran Zaev or the people in the leadership of SDSM, need something like that”, estimates VMRO DPMNE.

The Alliance for Albanians says that the decision of the Court of Appeals to release the former head of the Secret Police from detention, exposes, according to her, “the false claims of the government for the rule of law and the European integration of the country”.

“The Ahmeti-Mijalkov-Zaev regime continues to pardon criminals, responding in the most arrogant way possible to citizens who oppose their crimes.” This case once again unmasked the fraudulent Euro-integration agenda of this regime and legitimized our assessments that this regime should fall a day earlier. “All those who extended the life of this regime today were seen to have contributed to achieving the forgiveness of criminals”, it is said in the reaction of the Alliance for Albanians.

Bashkim Selmani, a professor at the Faculty of Law at the University of Tetova, says the decision by the Court of Appeals proves that the judiciary in northern Macedonia is corrupt.

“Organized crime has won in northern Macedonia, but not law and justice, ie. on Wednesday the Court of Appeals decided to release the architect of crime in the country from custody. This highlighted the metastasis of organized crime here. The way all the procedures are carried out, whether they are in the pre-investigation, investigative phase, or even those that are in the phase of approving court decisions, have nothing to do with justice, but only with the crime of metastasis that has involved justice “, says Selmani .

The work of the Judiciary was also criticized on Wednesday by President Stevo Pendarovski, in his annual address to the Assembly. According to him, the rule of law should be the main priority of a country aiming at membership in the European Union.

“It is disappointing that all public opinion polls show the growing sense of citizenship that a culture of impunity reigns in the country,” Pendarovski said.

Northern Macedonia in all reports of international institutions regarding the justice system, has been criticized for the lack of an independent and efficient judiciary.

An attempt to set up the Judiciary took place in 2016 when the Special Prosecution Office was formed, but its work also failed as the head of this prosecution, Katica Janeva, on June 18, 2020 was sentenced to 7 years in prison for abuse of office. The Geneva trial led to the dissolution of the Special Prosecution.

Government leaders had promised vetting in the judiciary, but so far there has been no concrete action to fulfill this promise aimed at controls, not only in the judiciary, but also in other areas.

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