SKOPJE– Three years after they were fired, criminally charged, and jailed for helping to bring down Macedonia’s corrupt prime minister, Gjorgji Lazarevskiand Zvonko Kostovski have been reinstated to their former positions. This marks the successful conclusion of a year-long campaign on behalf of two whistleblowers known as “Macedonia’s Forgotten Heroes.”

“There will always be a place for professionals in the ministry,” Interior Minister Oliver Spasovski told Lazarevski and Kostovski.

In 2015, while working at the Interior Ministry’s Security and Counterintelligence Administration, Lazarevski and Kostovski exposed the illegal wiretapping of some 20,000 public officials, judges, activists, and journalists by then-Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski. Gruevski’s government retaliated against the two by levying false criminal charges and imprisoning them for a year.

After being convicted of corruption and sentenced to prison himself, Gruevski fled the country for Hungary in November. The charges against the two whistleblowers eventually were dropped. A campaign to win their reinstatement was launched by the European Center for Whistleblower Rights (a partner of Government Accountability Project) and Transparency International Macedonia.

The campaign began with Lazarevski and Kostovski receiving the Free Speech Award in March 2018. This brought the case back into the public consciousness and led to renewed media coverage.

Additionally, international and Europe-wide action alerts to citizens and activists targeted the current Prime Minister. Articles and updates were continually distributed to officials and media. Activists spoke numerous times with the Prime Minister’s office, EU officials, US Embassy officials, and others in Skopje and Brussels.

“We saturated them with demands that the very least they could do for these two heroes – who were punished for trying to help their country – would be to give them their jobs back,” said Mark Worth, Executive Director of the European Center for Whistleblower Rights and International Policy Analyst for Government Accountability Project. “They could not regain this lost time, but their careers could be restored.”

Lazarevski said the campaign had a significant impact. “The publicity was crucial,” he told activists. “The pressure paid off.”

Lazarevski and Kostovski were also nominated for the Daphne Galizia Award for Journalists and Whistleblowers earlier this year and ultimately named finalists.

“Lazarevski and Kostovski are two brave people who risked not only their lives and careers, but also their families for the benefit of the entire country,” said Slagjana Taseva, Chair of Transparency International Macedonia. “They wanted citizens to understand how this extremely corrupt government was using state capture and intimidation equal to dictatorship as a model of power.”

“This is a significant victory,” Worth said, “not only for Mr. Lazarevski and Mr. Kostovski, but for a country that is working as hard as any country in Eastern Europe to turn away from the oppressive and vengeful tactics of the past, and to join the EU as a fully functioning democracy implanted in justice and the rule of law.”

Contact: Mark Worth, International Policy Analyst
Email: [email protected]
Phone: (+49) 176 630 94993 (Berlin)

 

Government Accountability Project

Government Accountability Project is the nation’s leading whistleblower protection organization. Through litigating whistleblower cases, publicizing concerns and developing legal reforms, Government Accountability Project’s mission is to protect the public interest by promoting government and corporate accountability. Founded in 1977, Government Accountability Project is a nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C

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