Macedonian PM Zaev awaits verdict in bribery case

Macedonian PM Zaev awaits verdict in bribery case
Zaev has been accused of taking a bribe from a local businessman when he was mayor of Strumica, southeast Macedonia. / Naskotaska90
By Valentina Dimitrievska in Skopje May 17, 2018

The verdict in the bribery case involving Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, brought against him when he was an opposition leader, will be delivered by a Skopje court on May 21. 

Zaev pleaded not guilty in this case, saying that the charges against him were fabricated in the period when he was the leader of the opposition Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) and aimed at preventing his political activities. They coincided with his revelations about crime and corruption among top officials of the former government led by the conservative VMRO-DPMNE party. However, if found guilty he could face a prison sentence. 

Zaev was charged with taking a bribe of more than €160,000 from a local businessman in 2013 to allow privatisation of a land plot in Strumica, when he was mayor of the southeast Macedonian town. The case erupted in 2015, when a video recording posted on YouTube appeared to show Zaev asking for a bribe from local businessman Ivan Nikolov.

However, Zaev claimed that the video recording was made intentionally through a secret agent and the interior ministry led by VMRO-DPMNE at the time.

Zaev said previously that once all the evidence is seen by the court authorities, it will become clear that the conversation was about collecting donations for the Cathedral Church in Strumica, and that he called on local businesspeople to donate for the construction of the church.

He claimed that the footage released was only a small part of the conversation and that if the entire recording is fully disclosed than people will see that he had no intention of accepting a bribe. He asked the court to make all other evidence public.

Zaev’s lawyer also explained that the meeting between his client and the businessman took place after the privatisation process was over.

Following the final hearing on May 15, Zaev said he will respect any verdict that will be taken by the court.

“I’m happy that through the transparency of this process, the public finally came to the truth,” Zaev said. 

In the closing statement on May 15, Zaev's lawyers said that Nikolov’s statements were contradictory and accused him of being an agent-provocateur.

Inconsistent testimony 

Flaws in the case against the prime minister have already become apparent. During the latest hearing, the prosecutor Valentina Bislimovska said that the evidence does not show that Zaev took a bribe and changed the indictment to asking for a reward for official action, for which a penalty of one to five years in prison can be imposed. The previous indictment was for taking a bribe, which envisages a longer prison sentence of four to ten years.

"There was no consistency in the testimony of Ivan Nikolov, but he claimed all the time that Zoran Zaev, as an official person, demanded a reward to perform an activity within his authorisations. But the fact that the money was not received is indisputable. Real benefits have not been obtained,” Bislimovska said.

During the trial Nikolov acknowledged that he had recorded Zaev and gave contradictory statements.

At the final hearing the prosecutor also decided not to take the video recording as evidence as it was illegally taken.

Zaev has commented that the fact that the indictment was changed and the rejection of the key evidence acknowledges that the recording of his office was illegal and politically motivated. 

Explosive revelations

At the time the recording was made, Zaev had launched the Truth for Macedonia campaign, when he first warned of and later released the so-called “bombs” – a series of wiretapped conversations implicating top officials in criminal activities. The intention of the tape was to prevent him from publishing the tapes under the Truth for Macedonia campaign, Zaev said.

It was made shortly after Zaev accused former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski of ordering a massive wiretapping campaign that targeted more than 20,000 Macedonian citizens.

After that Zaev made dozens of more allegations, publishing tapped phone conversations concerning, among others, government involvement in the judiciary and appointments. 

The wiretapping scandal led to early elections in December 2016, in which VMRO-DPMNE won a narrow victory, but was unable to form a government.

Instead, the SDSM led by Zaev and the ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration (DUI) formed a government with a slim majority in the parliament, oriented towards EU and Nato integration.

Zaev is an economist and politician, who prior to becoming prime minister, served as a mayor of Strumica between 2005 and 2016.

The trial against him initially was planned to start in early 2016, but was postponed several times for various reasons.

The verdict is due to be announced at a fragile time for Macedonia, when the government is making tremendous efforts to solve the problematic long-standing name dispute with Greece, which is a precondition for unblocking the country’s Euro-Atlantic integration processes. 

Zaev is also in the midst of expanding his ruling coalition with the inclusion of a couple more small parties, with his new ministerial nominees expected to be announced this week. 

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