Five candidates for head of the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office for Prosecution of Organized Crime and Corruption as application vetting begins

The Council of Public Prosecutors has established the committees responsible for reviewing the candidacies for the position of the new head of the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office for Prosecution of Organized Crime and Corruption. A total of five candidates have applied for the position.

The candidates include senior prosecutor Jove Cvetanovski; Trajçe Pelivanov, a prosecutor at the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office and former prosecutor at the Special Public Prosecutor’s Office; Lidija Raiçeviq, a prosecutor at the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office in Skopje; and prosecutors at the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office for Prosecution of Organized Crime and Corruption, Iskra Haxhi-Vasileva and Faton Azizi.

The committee will check whether the applicants meet the legal criteria and the requirements set out in the announcement. The results of the review will be published on the Council’s website within three days, the institution’s chairman, Bashkim Besimi, announced.

Under the established rules, public prosecutors who have at least six years of uninterrupted experience serving as prosecutors by the application deadline, as well as a positive performance evaluation during the past three years, may apply for the position.

The election of the new head is scheduled to take place on October 28.

The process was opened after the mandate of the current head of the prosecution office, Islam Abazi, ended. He was elected to the position in October 2022.

Meanwhile, regarding the decision to terminate disciplinary proceedings against one of the candidates, Chief Prosecutor Saveski said he would not appeal it.

“I have accepted the decision and I believe I have already stated my position on this. I will not file [an appeal]; that is, the deadline for filing an appeal has expired,” said Nenad Saveski, chief prosecutor.