Every great cause begins as a movement

Businessman Jordan Orce Kamcev of Macedonia has been arrested again. Surprisingly Kamcev’s arrest led to the arrest of Katica Janeva the Special Prosecutor Office (SPO) for different extortion charges. The arrest implicated Zoran Zaev the current Prime Minister, due that it was Zaev who took this small-time lawyer -once hero- into the prestigious office. In addition to this Zaev incarcerated Kamcev in inhumane conditions which there have been reports of torture and humiliation. Most white-collar crime criminals are placed under house arrest but what is happening here is corruption at the highest level. Imprisoning and torturing someone who supported the (now current) opposition is wrong, Kamcev is a political prisoner.

Zaev grabbed power four years ago, two and a half years after he initiated the “Colored Revolution” using wiretaps given to him by rogue domestic and possibly foreign intelligence officers. He is now allegedly a marijuana baron and not a week goes by without a novel type of criminal activity being attributed about him. Predictably, Macedonia dropped incorruption rankings, and is now 111th in the world in corruption statistics – its worst result ever. In the place of criminals, dozens of opposition officials are imprisoned, in a systemic campaign of intimidating all who criticize the regime.

During the ridiculous trial of Kamcev, he testified how former prosecutor Janeva extorted €1.5 million from him, to sabotage her own separate money laundering case. Janeva has prosecuted Kamcev with several other businessmen, and former state security chief Saso Mijalkov, but decided to use the case to make some money for herself on the side. Despite widespread reports of involvement from Zaev, Kamcev stopped short in his testimony from actually accusing the Prime Minister.

The investigation was and is focused on Kamcev’s business empire and his relations with Mijalkov, who is also a businessman and a cousin of the former prime minister Nikola Gruevski. Both Mijalkov and Gruevski are under investigation by the SPO.

The original arrest took place of Kamcev was November 9th, 2018, the SPO launched a pre-investigative procedure against Kamcev, ex-intelligence chief (of the previous government) Saso Mijalkov and other 11 people on suspicion of criminal association, abuse of their positions, fraud, and money laundering.

Kamcev faces several charges, again, initiated by prosecutors loyal to the Zaev regime and yet he is the one being detained indefinitely. In 2019, he broke wide open the major “Racket” scandal, which showed how Zaev loyalists such as Special Prosecutor Janeva were extorting millions from him, likely sharing the money with the top of the ruling party.

Kamcev is charged in one of the numerous politically motivated cases the Zaev regime instigated against former officials of the VMRO-DPMNE party. The arrest is seen in the context of the major Racket scandal – Kamcev faced extortion techniques from former Special Prosecutor Katica Janeva and her associates, all allegedly orchestrated by the leadership of the ruling SDSM party. He blew the whistle on Janeva and revealed sufficient evidence to send her and an associate to prison. However, stopped short of expanding the allegations toward top SDSM party officials.

“The trials against me are revenge for the Racket scandal”, said Kamcev during the hearing in the Skopje court. He continued to add that “the fact that the prosecutor performed serious forgery and has manipulated the judges proves that this case is another battle in the war that the prosecution wages against me. This is all because of the well-known Racket scandal and is now being intensified to the point that I’m kept in prison for (over) six months over two sentences on one single piece of paper”.

Zaev’s corruption goes so far that two police officers were detained in May 2021, reportedly for acting as whistleblowers in the major new scandal involving the Zaev regime. Plusinfo reports that the detained officers are Aleksandar Janev – former head of the organized crime unit, and organized crime inspector Ilija Calsev Menis. The Interior Ministry later confirmed that not two, but three unnamed police officials were interrogated in relation with violating secrecy laws.

They are suspected of leaking a police report that revealed how Zoran Zaev’s brother Vice Zaev was extorting money from a coal mining company. The full extent of the scandal was revealed by the opposition VMRO-DPMNE party.

Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket. This observation by philosopher Eric Hoffer applies to the Colored Revolution in Macedonia both figuratively and literally. What started ostensibly as a movement for justice and the rule of law has now turned into a criminal regime that abuses the judiciary to go after its political opponents and stay in power, with some of the former protesters working as its PR people and other offices with the new regime.

The defense team for businessman Kamcev with all legitimate avenues exhausted, have announced that they are forced to turn to the Council of Europe, the Association for the Prevention of Torture, the Ombudsman, and the Helsinki Committee to protest the treatment of Kamcev in prison.

The lawyers claim that the Kamcev is subjected to degrading, humiliating treatment, in a cell with no running water, limited drinking water, with no light or fresh air. “This inhumane treatment and the torture he is enduring makes Kamcev’s health situation worse by the day”, the attorneys said.

This is throwback to the USSR under Stalin’s regime. A country where the men of influence are jailed because of paranoia or unwillingness to pay off the right people. They are put through horrid conditions as punishment for succeeding. The Prime Minister of Macedonia, Zaev, is not only corrupt but has bowed down to Greek and Bulgarian request about changing the name of Macedonia. The country and people deserve someone who is not corrupt, someone who will not attack those that may have opposed him. Someone who will stand up for what is right.

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