Former State Lottery director Perparim Bajrami says that he does not feel guilty regarding the State Lottery case during Friday’s hearing at the Skopje Basic Criminal Court.
At the trial, which began last week, all the accused pleaded not guilty, with the exception of Bajrami, who was unavailable to law enforcement authorities at the time of the initial hearing, and defendant Bashkim Avdi, who stated he did not understand the charges against him and requested that they be provided in writing in his native Albanian language.
Bajrami, along with former Deputy Prime Minister Artan Grubi, Metodija Dimovski, Skender Mehmeti, Bojan Janev, Fatmir Ramadanovski, Aleksandar Dimitrioski, and Bashkim Avdiu, is charged with exceeding official authority and causing financial damage to the State Lottery amounting to MKD 596,125,511.
After fleeing the country, an international arrest warrant was issued for Bajrami. On September 9, he voluntarily surrendered at the Blace border crossing, after which he was transferred to the Skopje prison to serve a previously ordered detention measure. Former Deputy Prime Minister Grubi had also previously been a fugitive; he surrendered to law enforcement authorities in February of this year, after a year on the run.
