Skopje, 14 August 2024 (MIA) - Member of the Council of Public Prosecutors Ixhet Memeti accepted Wednesday a plea deal with the Basic Public Prosecutor's Office for Prosecuting Organized Crime and Corruption for the crime of “accepting a reward for unlawful influence” and resigned his position on the Council, the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of North Macedonia said in a press release Wednesday.

“With the submitted initiative for the plea bargain, suspect I.M. also submitted an irrevocable resignation from his position as member of the Council of Public Prosecutors. The parties agreed that the Court should impose a conditional prison sentence of one year, which will not be realized unless the suspect commits a new crime within three years. They also agreed that the Court should ban the suspect from carrying out his profession, activity, or duty for three years,” the Prosecutor’s Office said.

The Prosecution said the suspect consciously and voluntarily accepted the plea bargain and the consequences that it stipulates, giving up on his right to appeal if the Court adopts a verdict with which it accepts the plea agreement.

It said the plea bargain, alongside all collected evidence, has been submitted to a pre-trial judge at the Basic Criminal Court in Skopje who should schedule a trial to assess the plea agreement. If it is assessed as acceptable, the relevant court will adopt a verdict based on the plea agreement.

Supreme Judge Nakje Georgiev, who is also involved in the case and was caught “in flagranti” committing the crime of “accepting a reward for unlawful influence”, has also submitted a plea bargain initiative and negotiations are underway.

Memeti and Georgiev are suspects in an investigation launched by the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office for Prosecuting Organized Crime and Corruption after an action from the Interior Ministry following a report from the son of a suspect in a separate case led at the Prosecutor’s Office. 

Photo: MIA Archive