Former Macedonian PM Questioned Over 2001 Arms Deal

07-08-2007 (AlbanianTimes) Skopje_ Former Macedonian prime minister and Social Democratic Party deputy Vlado Buckovski was questioned by an investigative judge for nearly nine hours Friday over his role in an arms procurement scandal.

Buckovski voluntarily came to Skopje`s Criminal Court for questioning escorted by more than a dozen high SDSM officials and deputies. He was greeted by around 100 supporters cheering his name and holding banners saying, “We are not giving up Buckovski.”

A heavy police presence was on hand outside the court building to prevent supporters from intervening if Buckovski was ordered into detention. At least one other former official questioned in the case was ordered into 30-day detention.

But Buckovski walked out of the court around 6 p.m. local time after questioning by an investigative judge about his role in a probe involving illegal procurement of spare parts for T-55 tanks from the company MZT in late 2001. Buckovski was defence minister at the time. Macedonia’s financial police have estimated the alleged scheme cost the country’s budget about 3 million euros.

Buckovski, who served as a prime minister from 2004 to 2006, has denied the charges. He said charges for the same case were raised and later dismissed by prosecutors in 2002.

On Thursday, a parliamentary committee stripped Buckovski of his immunity from prosecution in a tense overnight session that the opposition described as illegitimate and against parliament rules of procedure.

“This is a politically staged scenario against the SDSM deputy Vlado Buckovski,” party spokesman Damjan Mancevski told reporters in front of the court. “SDSM demands that the questioning of Buckovski is halted until the entire case is put under international monitoring of the OSCE, the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights and other relevant institutions and organizations.”

Local media reported that a representative for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe had arrived upon the SDSM request but was not allowed to attend the questioning.
Mancevski also said his party filed forgery charges against the president of the parliamentary committee that stripped Buckovski of his parliamentary immunity.

SDSM parliamentary deputies met with Parliament Speaker Ljubisa Georgievski on Friday to demand that he call an urgent plenary session to discuss Buckovski’s immunity. The SDSM deputies insisted the committee’s decision was not legal.

But parliament spokesman Todor Pendarov said no session would take place in the next few days. Georgievski and SDSM members will discuss the matter again on Monday, Pendarov said. Deputies are officially on holidays until August 21 but they can be called at any time into a session if the speaker decides.

Buckovski is accused along with an MZT manager, Mitre Petkovski; the former chief of staff of the Macedonian Army, General Metodij Stamboliski; and two other defence ministry officials; for abuse of position in the arms deal. (BIRN)