Former Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, who is the prime suspect in the investigation published Friday for part of the “Skopje 2014” project, and with which he and other suspects are charged with abuse of office and money laundering in the amount of 16 million euros for the casting of 11 monuments and for “pumping” 57 million euros of money from the state budget, said in a social media post that the investigation under the code name “Phoenix” was the result of the fear of politicians led by former Prime Minister Zoran Zaev.
“Today, the Prosecutor’s Office announced that since 2016, that is, for 7 years, they have been conducting an investigation that has not been completed, and from the prosecutor’s narrative, there is no indication that it will end quickly, and it concerns some of the projects of the so-called project Skopje 2014, that is, for 11 monuments, they published a list of suspects, persons they suspect, and for several of them they even requested detention, which in practice for this controlled judiciary means that they will receive a measure of detention.
“Behind this procedure are frightened politicians, led by Zaev, who continues to have a huge influence in the justice system, and people close to him from politics, from his SDSM party, but also from other political parties,” Gruevski said in a Facebook post.
