Macedonia’s embattled PM Nikola Gruevski confirmed he will step down this week or next, but the name of his interim successor who will hold snap polls in April remains unknown. A ruling VMRO DPMNE party official told BIRN on Monday that the party is still undecided between several candidates to take up the prime ministerial […]

State prosecutors filed an indictment against the former Agriculture Minister of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ten of his alleged associates and five companies – who they say were all involved in an organized crime group that committed various financial crimes. Prosecutors say the group used a cascading set of companies to skip out […]

Belgrade newspaper Blic was criticized for violating the presumption of innocence by publishing the names and photographs of people arrested during a huge anti-corruption swoop. A Blic front-page story listing the names of 15 former state officials and businessmen arrested in the police anti-corruption operation on Friday “violates the presumption of innocence and the protection of […]

Publishing a book of scientific value can shave 30 days off a jail term – but no one is evaluating the results of the many white-collar inmates exploiting law Dan Voiculescu, media mogul and former prisoner, has reportedly written eight scientific papers. Photograph: Daniel Mihailescu/AFP/Getty Images Dan Voiculescu , one of Romania’s richest men and […]

Some doctors and pharmacist found a way to enrich themselves through fake and fraudulent prescription orders that are subsidized by Una Sana Health Care Fund.     Two years ago, Haris Hadžalić received a phone call from the Cazin-based Public Health Clinic. The clinic’s director Muris Halkić asked him how was it possible that he […]

After months of post-poned trials and seven years of litigation, the Belgrade Court of Appeals acquitted controversial businessman Stanko Subotic of cigarette smuggling charges in a final ruling which cannot be appealed by the prosecution. According to the final verdict published on the court’s website on December 24, the court said that the statute of […]

Financial Police have arrested 19 persons, including current and former employees in the Agency for Real Estate Cadastre (AREC), owner of a private surveying company in Skopje and individuals who illegally acquired real estate property. The Financial Police proceeded upon a report by the AREC’s internal control department, which detected illegal activities in numerous cases […]

The anti-corruption agency USKOK said on Tuesday that an investigation had not turned up any evidence of possible unlawful influence on some members of Parliament to have them support any of the political camps elected to the national parliament in the November 8 parliamentary election. USKOK had instructed the police to investigate possible threats and […]

Serbian police arrested 80 people including a former minister on graft charges on Saturday, stepping up an anti-corruption drive days after opening talks on joining the European Union. In the biggest sweep of its kind in the country in decades, the former head of the anti-corruption agency, executives of state-owned companies, two ex-government officials and […]

The removal of judge Vladimir Vucinic from Belgrade’s Special Court was a political move aimed at curbing judicial independence and will set back an important case against interior ministry officers, experts alleged. The decision last month to remove judge Vucinic from the special chambers of the Higher Court, which deal with organised crime, corruption and […]