State Lottery trial postponed, next hearing on November 11

The trial in the “State Lottery” case will continue on November 11 after the hearing scheduled for today at the Basic Criminal Court in Skopje did not take place and was postponed.

Former First Deputy Prime Minister Artan Grubi and former State Lottery director Përparim Bajrami face charges in the case. Bashkim Avdi, Metodija Dimovski, Skender Mehmeti, Bojan Janev, Fatmir Ramadanovski and Aleksandar Dimitrioski are also defendants.

The indictment charges the eight defendants with exceeding their official authority, allegedly causing the State Lottery losses of 596,125,511 denars. Each has pleaded not guilty at this stage of the proceedings.

On November 3, the Criminal Council of the Basic Criminal Court in Skopje ordered Bajrami’s release from pretrial detention, accepting real estate as collateral worth 1,140,781 euros. He was also placed under precautionary measures, including the seizure of his travel document and a requirement to report regularly to the court.

The most recent hearing took place on October 30. Andrej Krstevski, an adviser on project implementation at the State Lottery who had previously served on its Management and Supervisory Boards and as the company’s deputy director, testified. His testimony focused on how decisions were made at the company and on the procurement procedure for VLT terminals.

Asked by the prosecution about the purchase of the VLT terminals, Krstevski said Bajrami had personally told him about the idea. As for the procedure, he explained that members of the committees responsible for conducting it had informed him immediately after it was completed.

Public prosecutors Daniel Kocev and Aleksandar Davçevski represent the prosecution in the case, while Judge Biljana Shuplinovska-Jovevski presides over the trial.