Përparim Bajrami and the other defendants plead not guilty in the “State Lottery” case

Përparim Bajrami, the former director of the State Lottery, pleaded not guilty at today’s hearing before the Basic Criminal Court in Skopje in connection with the “State Lottery” case.

At the first hearing, held last week, all the defendants denied the charges except Bajrami, who at the time was unavailable to law enforcement authorities. Meanwhile, Bashkim Avdi said he did not understand the content of the indictment and requested that the document be provided to him in writing in his native language, Albanian.

During today’s hearing, Avdiu also said that he did not feel guilty of the charges against him.

Përparim Bajrami, former Deputy Prime Minister Artan Grubi, Metodija Dimovski, Skender Mehmeti, Bojan Janev, Fatmir Ramadanovski, Aleksandar Dimitrioski and Bashkim Avdiu are charged with exceeding their official authority and causing damage of 596,125,511 denars to the State Lottery.

After leaving the country, the authorities issued an international arrest warrant for Bajrami. On September 9, he turned himself in at the “Bllacë” border crossing and was subsequently taken to Skopje Prison, where he is to serve the detention measure imposed earlier./Telegrafi/