Cleaning up of the judicial system is among 10 priorities included in the ‘Action 21’ initiative aimed at introducing European standards home that was presented Monday by PM Zoran Zaev.
“We are in the final stage of the deep and substantial judicial reforms through efficient and objective cleaning up of the judicial system and the prosecution. We came this far after a hard battle with the opponents of justice. For some of them, for Mickoski (VMRO-DPMNE leader) for example, on several occasions we have publicly heard that they are the only ones to defend crime, and therefore they were against the law on prosecution which was adopted in the parliament by the ruling majority,” Zaev said at the press conference.
Owing to the law on prosecution, Prime Minister pointed out, cases of high-level corruption have been processed and solved and will be resolved.
“Senior officials, ministers, are already serving prison sentences for serious crimes. Over the past year, Judicial Council has initiated about 80 procedures whereat eight judges have been dismissed, Zaev added.
Referring to model to cleaning up the judiciary, he said that it is in the final phase that was primarily prepared by representatives of the Judicial Council, the Council of Public Prosecutors, with the support of the academics.
“The work of every judge will be evaluated by the Judicial Council or the Council of Public Prosecutors and will review of the work of judges, especially in relation to certain proceedings regarding cases that were brought to a statute of limitation by continuations, infrequent hearings,” Zaev noted.
He also said that they will propose legal obligations under which the Public Prosecutor’s Office shall regularly and continuously inform the public on its work and progress in terms of cases followed by the citizens.
“Here I am referring primarily of the cases of organized crime and corruption. The entire process will be implemented in stages, whereat State Commission for Prevention of Corruption is entrusted the responsibility to verify the origin of assets of both judges and public prosecutors,” he said.
Zaev announced that the EU monitoring of cases of high-level corruption is expected to start at the beginning of next year, at the latest in the spring, in which foreign experts and domestic experts selected by the EU and OSCE will participate.
“We were the first country in the region to ask the EU to immediately launch an initiative for high-profile corruption case monitoring. And that will not depend on the start of EU accession negotiations,” Zaev said.
