Saso Dukoski, lawyer for key Racket suspect Bojan Jovanovski – Boki 13, said that the contents of his phone were only partialy delivered to the court. The material lacked the WhatsApp messages on the phone, which Dukoski says will be important in the course of the trial.
Boki 13 alleged that his one-time friend PM Zoran Zaev was a key figure in the extortion ring that he was also a part of, and has repeatedly asked the court to allow the contents of his phone to be used as evidence.
Half of the forensics copy can’t be opened. Fully missing are the WhatsApp messages. There are screen-shots, but they have been scrambled and are not in order, Dukoski told Skopje media.
As Boki was sentenced to nine years in prison in the original Racket trial, and faces another extortion charge, he has been willing to blow the whistle on Zaev. But the trials seem designed to prevent him from speaking fully and the court so far has shown zero interest in seeing all the evidence which would clearly implicate Zoran Zaev.
In addition, Boki 13 stated that the president of the Criminal Court Ivan Dzolev has asked him for a 50,000 euro bribe if he wanted to receive a favorable sentence.
Zaev extensively used the judiciary in his power-grab, mainly through the Special Prosecutor Katica Janeva, who was sentenced for extortion in the first Racket trial, along with Boki 13. Janeva would initiate frivolous cases against Zaev’s political opponents, while Dzolev would allow violations of the law and court procedures such as accepting warrantless wiretaps as evidence. Dzolev was appointed as head of this court that handles all main criminal cases shortly after Zaev grabbed power in 2017.