Skopje, 17 January 2023 (MIA) – The Skopje Criminal Court will announce Monday the first-instance verdict for the Titanic 2 case, related to election irregularities for which the former secret police chief Sasho Mijalkov, DPA Leader Menduh Thaçi and former members of the State Election Commission (SEC) are indicted.

This will be the second first-instance verdict for the Titanic 2 case, after the Criminal Court convicted the defendants in 2019, but in December of the same year, the Appellate Court annulled the verdict due to substantial violations of the procedure and sent the case back for a retrial.

Prosecutor Gavril Bubevski requested at the trial on Tuesday that Sasho Mijalkov, Menduh Thaçi and former members of SEC be declared guilty in the Titanic 2 case.

The Prosecutor noted the aggravating and mitigating factors for each of the defendants. As a mitigating factor for the former SEC members, he pointed to the fact that no other proceedings are being conducted against them and that they haven’t been convicted in the past, while the abuse of their knowledge and the illegal acts they committed in front of the public, according to the Prosecutor, are aggravating factors.

When it comes to former secret police chief Sasho Mijalkov, Bubevski pointed to the degree of criminal responsibility, the reasons for the crime, the fact that other criminal proceedings are being led against him and that he has received a final verdict as the aggravating factors, while noting his good behavior and respect for the court as mitigating factors.

Regarding Menduh Thaçi, the Prosecutor noted the direct intention and the circumstances as aggravating factors, while stressing his respect for the Court and the Prosecutor’s Office as mitigating factors.

The Prosecutor requested that each of the defendants be sanctioned in line with the degree of the crime.

Mijalkov’s lawyer, Mile Petrovski, requested that his client, as well as the other defendants, be acquitted of their charges. According to Petrovski, there is no evidence which shows that Mijalkov committed the crime he is accused of, while the claim that he used his influence is an allegation, and not a fact confirmed by evidence.

Mijalkov’s second attorney, Ljupcho Shvrgovski, said that he expected Prosecutor Bubevski to withdraw the charges, because, according to him, the prosecutor should not question the work of the judges.

“The Prosecutor should admit his mistake and withdraw the charges or you should grant an acquittal,” Shvrgovski told Judge Ognen Stavrev.

The indicted former members of SEC, Bedredin Ibraimi, Sasho Srcev, Vlatko Sajkovski and Aneta Stefanovska dismissed the accusations over election irregularities until 2013. In their closing statements, they all remarked that they carried out their work in a professional and impartial manner, and according to them, Prosecutor Bubevski failed to prove that they really committed the crime.

According to the indictment, Mijalkov had DPA leader Menduh Thaçi order SEC member Bedredin Ibraimi to vote for annulment of regular voting at a polling station in Strumica to benefit then-VMRO-DPMNE candidate Vasil Pishev as opposed to SDSM’s Zoran Zaev. ad/sk/