The car of JudgeGjokoRistov, who is accused of money laundering and undeclared assets, was set on fire in Skopje’s TaftalidzeSunday night.
The Macedonian Ministry of Interior (MoI) confirmed that the vehicle was set on fire. The Ministry of Interior announced in the police bulletin that it was a Passat car, owned by G.R. In the fire reported Sunday night at 2:50 a.m., in addition to the judge’s car, two other cars and a business building were damaged in the fire.
Judge Ristov was accused of money laundering after EUR 350,000 were found hidden in a wall in the home of Ristov’s parents in Negotino, for whose origin he has no proof and failed to report it.
The money was found packed in 13 individual packages, a total of 610 banknotes in denominations of 500 euros and 225 banknotes in denominations of 200 euros, some of which were marked with handwritten amounts of the funds, hidden in a walled-in space in the brick cavities in the wall of one of the rooms.
This raised reasonable suspicion that this suspect in the period from 10.02.2020, as an official a judge at the Skopje Appellate Court, contrary to the legal duty to declare his assets or changes to them, provided false information about his and his family’s assets and failed to declare assets that significantly exceeded his legal income.
The trial, which is ongoing, follows the already concluded procedure against a lawyer, a former state attorney, who pleaded guilty to requesting EUR 100,000 and receiving EUR 20,000 to mediate by influencing an appeals judge to lift a detention order. He was sentenced to one year and three months in prison by agreement.
