The judicial authorities in North Macedonia have not pursued 56 initiatives against officials suspected of involvement in corruption, nepotism, organized crime, and other legal violations.
This was announced on Wednesday by the State Commission for Prevention of Corruption in North Macedonia, which has also initiated criminal lawsuits based on various complaints received by this institution.
“From our initiatives for criminal prosecution submitted to public prosecutors, so far, no decision from the public prosecutor’s office has reached the courts. These are the cases of the current composition of the Anti-Corruption Commission. However, there have been no lawsuits from past compositions, which are over 200 initiatives for criminal prosecution that we have pursued in law enforcement agencies,” said Biljana Ivanovska, Chairperson of the Commission for the Fight Against Corruption.
The complaints from this institution come at a time when North Macedonia is facing numerous criticisms for the lack of results in the fight against corruption.
This was also emphasized in the latest report by the organization Transparency International, despite the country making improvements by two places.
This report identified changes in the Penal Code, made by the Government of Prime Minister Dimitar Kovačevski in 2023, as a major problem for the lack of results, which freed many officials and former officials suspected of corruption from prosecution.
“With the changes in the Penal Code that were approved within 24 hours, which reduced sentences for many corrupt officials, with the annulment of over 200 judicial proceedings, and with a judiciary that has the trust of only one percent of the population, we cannot expect good results. So, first, we must be clear with ourselves whether we are for a sincere fight against corruption or just for declarative combat. Because we have failed in this fight as a state, as indicated by the EU reports with the same recommendations every year – that institutions should further act with initiatives, with recommendations from independent bodies, so that cases have a judicial conclusion,” emphasized Ivanovska.
Even the U.S. ambassador to North Macedonia, Angela Aggeler, has reacted several times to the situation in the judiciary.
She has said that, despite the commitment and significant financial assistance from the U.S. Government in recent decades for the establishment of a functional and independent judicial system, results are lacking.
“Unfortunately, our investment in the progress of the judiciary did not yield the expected results,” Ambassador Aggeler had declared earlier.
