Former Minister of Transport and Communications and defendant in the trial against the alleged organizers of the violent storming of Parliament on April 27, 2017, Mile Janakieski, testified at the Skopje-based Criminal Court on Friday.

He denied involvement in the incident, adding that he had never met the witness Aleksandar Vasilevski before.

“My term in office ended May 2015. The first time I saw Aleksandar Vasilevski was when he testified in this very courtroom. There are 45,000 illegally wiretapped recordings of my conversations, most in the country, and they are available to the prosecution. I have never once talked to or texted this man,” Janakieski noted.

The ex-minister added that he’s willing to publicly take a polygraph test to prove claims.

“The current Prime Minister, the former President and many other office holders have testified that Aleksandar Vasilevski is not telling the truth. I had no involvement in the events on April 27, an incident that must never repeat,” he said.

Regarding his communication with former Parliament Speaker Trajko Veljanovski, Janakieski stressed that they had working relationship during his time in office.

“I spend most of my time now talking to lawyers and preparing my defence. I’ve been in detention for two year and eight months. It’s easy to find out who I’ve been talking to,” Janakieski told the court.

Earlier on Friday, former Minister of Education and defendant in the ’27 April’ case, also took the witness stand and underlined that Aleksandar Vasilevski’s testimony was false.

Judge Ilija Trpkov presides over the trial in the ’27 April’ case. Katerina Kolarovska was the prosecutor at Friday’s hearing.

Defendants include former Parliament Speaker Trajko Veljanoski, ex-transport minister Mile Janakievski, ex-education minister Spiro Ristovski, and former Administration for Security and Counterintelligence director Vladimir Atanasovski.

They are charged with terrorist endangerment of the constitutional order and security.