Her son could postpone Jankuloska’s prison sentence

Her son could postpone Jankuloska’s prison sentence
Former Interior Minister Gordana Jankuloska’s son, who is not yet one year old, could postpone the serving of her prison sentence. The Appellate Court yesterday announced the verdict by which Jankuloska’s prison sentence is reduced from six to four years for the  SPO’s ‘Tank’ case, that is, for the purchase of the luxury Mercedes for former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski.

The verdict comes one month after the public session in the second instance court, which examined the appeals submitted by Jankuloska for the verdict ruled by Judge Dobrila Kacarska. The Appellate Court partially upheld the appeals and reduced the prison sentence by two years.

Although the Appellate Court reduced the sentence, Jankuloska;s deadline for serving her prison sentence is coming to an end, given that with the decision brought by the Appellate Court, the verdict becomes final.

According to the procedure, the decision of the Appellate Court should be sent to the Criminal Court where it should be assigned to a judge for the execution of sanctions, and the assigned judge should submit a proposed act to Jankuloska for serving prison sentence. However, the former interior minister has a legal opportunity to ask for a postponement of the sentence due to her son, who is only nine months old.

One of the possibilities that a convicted person may request a postponement of serving prison sentence, according to the law on the execution of sanctions, is if the convicted felon is a woman whose child is less than one year old.

So far, neither Jankuloska nor her defense team have revealed what will be their next steps.

The former minister did not attend the trial when her prison sentence was pronounced, and during her closing argument she could not stop from crying when she mentioned the care for her son.

The trial for the ‘Tank’ case began with three defendants, Jankuloska, former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and former Assistant Minister of Interior Gjoko Popovski. Jankuloska's trial was singled out after she became pregnant and the separate tiral process began in late August, 45 days after she gave birth to her child. She was found guilty of abuse of office and authority. According to the court, she knew that it was an extremely expensive vehicle. The convicted Nikola Gruevski urged Jankuloska to buy the vehicle, and she, with the intent to fulfill his wish, urged Gjoko Popovski finish the job of procuring the vehicle.

Earlier, Kacarska sentenced the former prime minister to two years in prison in the same case, but after the Appellate Court confirmed the verdict, he escaped and was granted asylum in Budapest.

The vehicle was purchased illegally, and the intent was to fulfill Gruevski's wish, Judge Kacarska explained. Popovski was sentenced to six years in prison, but the Appellate Court reduced the sentence to four and a half years.

During the trial, the former interior minister reacted to the treatment of Judge Kacarska toward her on social media, and then sent a message to her former boss as well.

"It’s easy to say what is easy and what is not when you are far away from the problems, 800 km from Macedonia, and pardon yourself of all the problematic decisions by saying that someone else is always responsible for them and ignoring the reality that Macedonia is where it is today, among other things, and because of the many missed chances in the past, "Jankuloska wrote.

In one of her TV appearances, Judge Kacarska, while commenting on the Jankuloska verdict, said that no law stipulates that a woman or a mother cannot be convicted.

Although the Appellate Court’s verdict is effective, both parties have the right to extraordinary legal measures to the Supreme Court. This does not prevent the execution of the decision, but past experiences show that convicted politicians can still find some legal mechanism and never serve their prison sentences, as was the case with former Prime Minister Vlado Buckovski.

Frosina Fakova - Serafinovic