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Macedonia’s Ex Vice PM Sentenced To Prison
Skopje | 07 April 2009 |
Vasil Tupurkovski
In the infamous "Taiwan Loans" case, Tupurkovski and one other person were charged for the misuse of funds. The money is question were loans approved by Taiwanese Government back in 1999 when Tupurkovski was head of the state Agency for Development and Renewal, and in-charge for managing these funds.
The Criminal Court ruled that Tupurkovski and Jovan Andonov, his former aid in the agency, signed harmful loan contracts with several companies worth over 15 million Euros. Andonov received a two years' prison sentence, and the Court ordered Tupurkovski and Andonov to pay back approximately 2.5 million euros.
During the whole process, Tupurkovski claimed his innocence, while his lawyer said he would appeal the verdict.
As head of the Democratic Alternative, Tupurkovski served in the 1999-2000 government led by Ljubco Georgievski’s right from centre VMRO DPMNE party as Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for European Integration and National Coordinator for Foreign Aid.
During that period Macedonia recognized Taiwan based on Tupurkovski’s insistence, angering China over it. In return Taiwan promised a large investment plan in the country but only a small portion of the money arrived.
In December 2000, Tupurkovski left the government complaining that his projects for Taiwanese investments were being undermined by VMRO DPMNE.
Georgievski gave testimony before the courts in favour of Tupurkovski, claiming that the government gave verbal permission to disperse the funds.
(Reporting by Sinisa-Jakov Marusic)
