Skopje, 16 July 2021 (MIA) – The trial, commonly referred to as "Vodno Lots", started Friday at the Skopje Criminal Court with ex-PM Nikola Gruevski and ex-secret police chief Sasho Mijalkov being tried for money laundering. Other defendants include businessman Jodran Kamchev, his mother Ratka Kunovska-Kamcheva, Risto Novachevski, Gruevski’s wedding best man, and businessman Nenad Josifovikj. In introductory speech at the first hearing, the prosecutor Lile Stefanova asked the court to find the defendants guilty of the crimes they are charged with and the assets listed in the indictment to be seized. “The defendants had premediated the actions described in the indictment. For every action, for every fact in the indictment, we will present evidence. Material evidence will be presented publicly, we will all have the chance to listen to verbal evidence. In the end, I believe without a doubt that the state of facts will be established,” Stefanova told the court. Money laundering comes as a consequence of another preceding crime. The prosecution neither establishes it nor proposes it, said Mijalkov’s defense lawyer Zvonko Davidovikj. The prosecution, he said, cannot prove his premeditation and knowledge that someone else had illegally acquired money from the party before proposing him offshore company. “There’s neither human logic behind the indictment of my client. A man who had been a prime minister for 10 years really doesn’t need someone else to provide him with offshore company,” said the lawyer noting that the indictment had been “constructed” specifically against his client. According to Kamchev’s lawyer Elenko Milanov, the current legal qualification is not appropriate with the concrete case. “From the introductory speech we learned that there’s new evidence regarding alleged transactions. Financial transactions without financial forensic, there is no such thing, and haven’t been conducted by the prosecutors. We’ll prove that all the assets stemming from purchasing the shares are part of ORKA company’s business operations,” he said, noting that his client’s health has been deteriorating.