SKOPJE, 16. OCT. 2015 – The Macedonian opposition said that it will not resume suspended crisis talks with the government until the special prosecutor who will probe illegal surveillance claims gets her full team approved. The opposition Social Democrats, SDSM, blamed the government for the fact that the National Prosecutors Council only approved seven out of 14 proposed deputy special prosecutors, again delaying investigations into the alleged mass illegal wiretapping that sparked the ongoing political crisis in Macedonia. The SDSM urged the National Prosecutors Council to respect the recently-adopted Special Prosecution Law and allow Special Prosecutor Katica Janeva to complete her team so she can start working as soon as possible. “We demand an emergency meeting of the four [leading political] parties and representatives of the international community over the breaching of the Special Prosecution Law and the setting up of deadlines for fulfilling the legal obligations,” the SDSM said in a statement. “It is in the interest of Macedonia’s future that the Special Prosecutor be allowed to work independently,” it added. The party suspended its participation in the EU-brokered talks aimed at resolving the political crisis, in protest at the National Prosecutors Council’s actions. The EU and US ambassadors to Macedonia also expressed concern over the Prosecutors Council move to cut Janeva’s team in half. Veteran Macedonian lawyer Aleksandar Tortevski said that the Council had no right interfering in Janeva’s choices of deputies, only to approve them. He said the Special Prosecution Law gives Janeva full autonomy to decide upon such issues. “They cannot decide that Janeva should have seven instead of 14 deputies because that institution [the special prosecution] functions according to the Special Prosecution Law,” Tortevski said. Amid the fresh political turmoil, visiting European Parliament’s special rapporteur for Macedonia, Slovenian MEP Ivo Vajgl, is holding meetings with party leaders in an effort to boost mediation between the warring politicians. Macedonia’s feuding parties clinched a deal on the Special Prosecution Law and on appointing Janeva on September 15. The talks about the special prosecutor, the country’s electoral model and other reforms that need to be implemented before early elections in April are part of an EU-brokered political deal reached this summer.The county’s political crisis centres on opposition claims that covert tapes they have been releasing since February show that Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski was behind the illegal surveillance of some 20,000 people, including ministers. Gruevski, who has held power since 2006, has strongly denied the charges and insists the tapes were “fabricated” by unnamed foreign intelligence services and given to the opposition to destabilise the country.
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