Macedonia’s Lustration Commission in Lawsuit Threat

The DPA claims there is evidence that the legislator, a member of rival party, the ruling Democratic Union for Integration DUI, was a former socialist secret services informant.

But, even though the commission had documents to prove the claims at a recent session, it decided to ignore them, the party claims.

“The commission acted in a scandalous manner,” Luan Tresi, the DPA spokesperson told media on Monday.

He argued the commission ignored the evidence and voted “against the reality, trying to save the DUI legislator”.

The head of the Lustration Commission, Janakje Vitanovski, rebuffed DPA’s claims at a press conference on Monday, saying no political or other party had influenced the commission's work.

“The voting is secret, so I wonder how the party knows what the outcome was,” he said, claiming that “we only determine the facts, and we are still doing so as new evidence arrives”.

The DUI also rebuffed the DPA accusations against their legislator, whose name has not been disclosed.

According to the Lustration Law, the names of secret service informants cannot be revealed in public.

The law envisages their “quiet” departure from politics and public service.

“This party [DPA] seems to hold slander, nonsense and accusation as [being] part of their political concept,” Tahir Hani, a DUI deputy, told reporters.

Macedonia is following in the steps of many former communist and socialist states which have already enacted similar laws in order to address past injustices stemming from politically motivated judicial proceedings.

The Law on Lustration was adopted in 2008, but the commission only began its work last year.

Observers envisage the lustration process will take approximately 10 years to complete.