Counterspin: Jankuloska Is a “Victim” of the Authoritarian System of the Fugitive Gruevski

The case “Tank”, for which the former Interior Minister Gordana Jankuloska, her deputy Gjoko Popovski are serving prison sentences, and former Prime Minsiter Nikola Gruevski “bravely” fled the country, is clear from a legal point of view, at least according to the verdict upheld on three levels – Basic, Appellate and Supreme Court. However, VMRO-DPMNE spins that Jankulovska is a victim of the current PM Zoran Zaev Zaev without explaining why do they not openly ask Gruevski to return and share the fate of the other two convicts

 

Author: Teofil Blaževski

 

In the VMRO-DPMNE statement refering to the criminal case “Tank” and Former Interior Minister Gordana Jankuloska, there are several spins:

Spin: Gordana Jankulovska is a victim of injustices and political persecution of Zaev’s mafia. Jankulovska goes to prison for a car driven and used by Zoran Zaev and his mafia and at a time when the same government spends over 8 million Euros to buy new official vehicles…

[Source: VMRO-DPMNE/website – date: 28 October 2020]

Counterspin: Immediately after the news that the former Minister of Internal Affairs, Gordana Jankuloska, was sentenced to four years in prison, VMRO-DPMNE came up with a position in which we detect a clear spin.

Namely, the top officials of the party twist the truth communicating to the public that Jankuloska is a “victim of political persecution” by Zoran Zaev’s government, whom they call a mafia. On top of that, the party spins that Jankuloska went to prison “for a car driven and used by Zoran Zaev and his mafia” and at а time when that government “spends over 8 million Euros to buy new official vehicles”.

The facts point to a different truth. Most importantly, Gordana Jankuloska is serving a prison sentence due to a verdict of a competent criminal court, which is final and has passed all three court instances provided by the legislation. The verdict in the case “Tank” is a statement of the court for illegal purchase of an armored “Mercedes” by the Ministry of Interior Affairs and it is one of the first resolved cases of the former Special Public Prosecutor’s Office, for which an investigation was initiated in the spring of 2017.

One year later, in May 2018, a conviction was passed for Assistant Minister of Internal Affairs Gjoko Popovski – 6 years and 6 months in prison, as well as for the former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski – 2 years in prison. In October of the same year, the Appellate Court upheld the verdict for Gruevski, and his referral act was for November 8. A day or two earlier, Gruevski fled the country under unclear circumstances, and there is neither end to the investigation into the escape, nor were the circumstances clarified.

Jankuloska was tried in a separate procedure due to her pregnancy at that time, and the verdict was passed in October 2018. The Appellate Court in 2019 upheld the verdict, but also reduced the sentence to 4 years, and finally, the Supreme Court in 2020 upheld the sentences for all three convicts.

Therefore, it is quite clear that the case is cleared in terms of legality in the procedure and the three-level court system. Gruevski is a fugitive convicted of receiving a reward for illegal influence, and Jankuloska and Popovski for abusing their official position.

The fact that the Mercedes from this case is still in use, even though SDSM announced that it will be sold and money will be used for buying ambulances, is in no way connected to the case of Jankuloska. Also, it does not matter whether the government of SDSM and DUI in the past three years has purchased official vehicles for 8 million Euros or not.

These are facts that today or in the future can be assessed from an ethical point of view, or from the view of someone’s possible criminal responsibility if there have been abuses in a specific case and information on it. However, this has nothing to do with the final verdict for Jankulovska, which, let us repeat, she began to serve. Unlike the main actor in the previous authoritarian regime, in which Jankuloska was almost the entire time Minister of Interior Affairs, Nikola Gruevski, who for the same act decided not to go to prison and flee the country.

And VMRO-DPMNE, instead of using spins to tell whose victim Jankuloska is, could explain to the public why they do not call on Gruevski to share the fate with the other two convicts and face justice, in a legally cleared case confirmed by three court instances.

 

 

 

 

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