I understand the need for the Public Prosecutor’s Office for Prosecuting Organized Crime and Corruption and all other bodies to be transparent, but in any case I must emphasize that a preliminary investigation is a procedure that in itself implies secrecy within the proceedings, all in order to avoid violations of certain principles of law defined in line with the Constitution and law. Macedonian Minister of Interior Panche Toshkovski said in an interview with 360 Degrees.
Responding to a question regarding the notification from the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office for Prosecuting Organized Crime and Corruption (PPO OCC) for non-action, i.e. delay in the action by the Ministry of Interior in the preliminary investigation into espionage by employees in the Office of the Macedonian President, Toshkovski notes that he is truly surprised by the way certain information is shared in the public.
Minister Toshkovski points out that the preliminary investigation is a procedure that implies secrecy, and regarding the timeline, i.e. that the action was taken following a report by one of the organizational units in the Ministry of Interior from November last year, he indicated that in reality it is a period of two months, which is too short for the appropriate actions that should be processed by the Ministry of Interior.
“The second thing you noted is particularly suspicious. Why? Because we are talking about a period of three months, as the Prosecutor’s Office says, or a period of two months, as is in line with the last order that was given, a period that is too short in my personal opinion for the appropriate actions that should be processed by the Ministry of Interior. I will reiterate, I do not understand why the PPO in this case is going public with so many details, at this stage of the procedure. That is not clear to me. Secondly, what I have said, and is in line with everything we have done in the past, is that this is a very short period of time that is not at all unusual for actions by the Ministry of Interior. Third, the Ministry of Interior is not a courier service that picks up and brings something to the Prosecutor’s Office, there are probably postmen for that, etc. It probably needs to carry out certain analyses, it needs to do the essential work that it needs to do by order of the one who is Dominus Litis, the one who is in charge according to the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code. And the one in charge is the prosecutor,” underlined Toshkovski.
