The trial of former Appellate Court Judge Gjoko Ristov regarding the €350,000 walled up inside the house resumed Thursday at the Skopje Criminal Court with testimony from his parents.
Ristov’s mother was the first to take the stand, She stated that a search of their home was conducted on December 29, but nothing incriminating was found. Another search was carried out on January 18th and 19th.
“Eventually, they found the spot where I kept my money,” Ristov’s mother told the court.
She pointed out that since 1975, when the house was built, they had been putting their surplus funds in that particular spot.
“There was €350,000 there; it was our security for our old age, for anything we’d need. That money was earned over a lifetime. We would sell produce, we are a farming family. Watermelons, melons, peppers, walnuts, apricots, grapes, etc. We used to go to the markets and sell it,” she said.
She would convert the money from the sale of produce into Deutsche Marks, and later into euros, and place it in the storage spot. When asked if anyone else knew about the money, Ristov’s mother said that no one did.
“It was strictly my own and my husband’s,” she replied. She had last placed money in that spot a few years ago, specifically in 2023–2024, after which she fell seriously ill. She denies that Gjoko gave her the money to keep safe; she maintains that the funds belonged personally to her and her husband. She also mentioned that she did knitting work and described what she produced, noting that her husband also earned an income.
“A bank doesn’t guarantee more than €30,000,” said Ristov’s mother when asked why she kept the money at home instead of in a bank.
The court asked her how it was possible, if she was the one who placed the money in the hiding spot, that neither her DNA nor her husband’s was found on the foil wrappings, but only her son’s.
“I don’t think that’s true; I find it hard to believe. That money is strictly mine,” Ristov’s mother stressed.
Her husband, Gjoko Ristov’s father, took the stand after her. When asked who the money belonged to, he claimed that it belonged personally to him and his wife, having been earned from 1975 onwards.
“The children didn’t know. If they needed money, and I mean if they really needed it, I would give it to them, but they had to pay it back,” Ristov’s father responded.
He stated that the money belonged personally to him and his wife at the time it was discovered. He also claimed, in response to a question from the court, that his wife was the one who put the money in the wall.
“If I gave it to the children, they might gamble it away, I don’t know,” he replied, explaining why the children were unaware of the hidden funds.