Skopje, 6 July 2023 (MIA) - The Skopje-based Criminal Court sentenced Thursday former government secretary-general Dragi Rashkovski to eight years in prison, including time spent in house arrest, for abuse of office and money laundering in the case code-named "Softwares".

Rashkovski was sentenced to 7 years imprisonment for abuse of office and 1,5 year for money laundering but was given a single 8-year sentence by the court.

The court also sentenced the other defendants - Ivica Dimitrovski to 5 years in prison, Igor Hristov to 5,5 years, Daniel Stanchev to 4 years, Irena Ivanovska to 3,5 years, while Igor Ivanovski and Maja Siljanoska to 3 years, all indicted for abuse of office.

According to the indictment, Rashkovski did not act as required by law when carrying out four public procurement procedures - for biometric identification, software for average speed of vehicles and issuance of fines, cameras for detection of vehicle register plates, and cabinets for the biometric identification system and the detection cameras.

Dragi Rashkovski served as government secretary-general between 2017 and 2020.

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