The Skopje Court today sentenced SDSM party official Filip Andonov – Sokol to eight months in prison. Andov is sentenced for abuse of office at the time he was director of the investigative prison in Skopje.

According to the charges, Andonov allowed prisoners to leave the prison, and at times even had guards escort “VIP” prisoners to their homes and drive them across the city as they were engaging with their gangs. Six prison guards were also found guilty and given suspended sentences.

The SDSM party recently appointed Andonov as member of its Executive Board. After his sentencing, SDSM issued one of their typically aggressively worded press statements, insisting that Andonov is a victim of political persecution. “They appointed their own judges and prosecutors. There is no more independent judiciary or prosecution. Everything is in their clutches”, SDSM said in its statement.

VMRO-DPMNE responded with a statement noting that the judge that sentenced Andonov is actually the son of prosecutor Elizabeta Josifovska, member of the disgraced SPO prosecution office that SDSM used to launch systemic political prosecution of VMRO officials and worked on a case that led to the freezing of the property of VMRO-DPMNE.

The judge was named to the Skopje Criminal Court by former court President Ivan Dzolev, a loyalist of Zoran Zaev, after he worked at the organized crime division for just one year. The prosecutor in the case against Andonov, Valentina Beslimovska, is the same prosecutor who withdrew charges against Zoran Zaev, pardoning him for his crimes. How can these judges and prosecutors be put in any connection with VMRO-DPMNE?, the ruling party said in its response.