Prosecutors Lenche Risteska and Trajche Pelivanov are delivering Tuesday the closing arguments in the trial in the ‘Target-Fortress’ case involving illegal wiretapping and the destruction of surveillance equipment, at the Skopje-based Criminal Court.
Prosecutor Ristoska presented the arguments related to the events on the extraction of the wiretapped materials from Ministry of Interior.
Among other things, she emphasized the torture of witnesses when they were interrogated at the Ministry of Interior, after admitting that they were extracting the wiretaps.
“It would have been good if this was a script for a movie, but unfortunately this is a reality,” said Ristoska, explaining how the wiretapping took place through the three surveillance systems in the Ministry of Interior.
Judge Dzeneta Begtovikj presides over the trial and the prosecution is represented by Lenche Risteska and Trajche Pelivanov.
According to the charges, between 2008 and 2015, the accused, using three different surveillance systems for following communications within the former secret police, illegally wiretapped more than 4,286 telephone numbers without obtaining court orders to do so.
Additional 1,541 telephone numbers were tapped before and after the court orders were issued and expired.
The conversations from 5,827 telephone numbers for a total of over 20,000 individuals were unlawfully wiretapped.
