First interim report on the activities and the cases under the competence of the Special Prosecutor’s Office (SPO)

The Special Prosecutor’s Office (SPO) was established by Parliament in September 2015, pursuant to an EU-brokered political agreement to overcome the political crisis that arose following the 2015 wiretap scandal. This report is the result of the OSCE Mission to Skopje’s trial monitoring observations of cases under the competence of the SPO. This interim report focuses primarily on the 20 cases in which the SPO filed indictments by the statutory deadline. It contains a factual overview of the charges in those cases and analyses relevant developments up to and including confirmation of the indictments, with a specific focus on precautionary measures and the controversy over the admissibility of the wiretaps. In addition, this report includes information related to four cases initially prosecuted by the Public Prosecutor’s Office (PPO), and taken over by the SPO, as well as an overview of publicly available information related to ongoing SPO investigations.