Delcevo broker: I carried €50,000 in a black bag for ex‑inspectorate director Vase Anakiev

A customs broker from Delcevo, Gorancho Stamenkovski, told the court he carried a black bag containing 50,000 euros that was meant for the then‑director of the State Agricultural Inspectorate, Vase Anakiev. The payment, he said, was requested by the importer company Manov to secure release of trucks loaded with bulk fertilizer at the border.

Stamenkovski described how he first learned that Manov's tipper trucks had been stopped because of a legal restriction on importing loose fertilizer that required packaging. "I was a customs representative, a forwarder for the company 'Manov', for many years. Regarding the incident, employees called me that the importers' 'Manov' trucks had been detained because there was some ban on importing bulk fertilizer under some law. That it had to be packaged. Previously there had been no such situations. 'Manov' have been importing bulk fertilizer for years, with tipper trucks. 'Manov' has been importing in bulk for 20 years. The owners requested a meeting with the director to find out what the legal obstacle was and why the import was prevented," he said.

Meeting, a phone and a demand for cash

He said the company owners asked him to use his personal contacts with Anakiev to arrange a meeting. "Then they called me. We socialize with the Manov brothers privately and, since they had information that I knew Anakiev even before he became director, they asked me to ask what the problem with the import was. I asked Vase to meet. The same or the next day, we met in Kočani in a tavern. We met, he told me there was some provision under which one could not import. I asked why it had been imported until now; he told me the provision. I begged him about the trucks that were standing at the border and could not be cleared," Stamenkovski testified.

According to the witness, at one point Anakiev asked for his phone: "Give me the phone." After Stamenkovski returned, one of the Manov brothers told him: "He is asking me for money, 100,000 euros in two installments. I was astonished." The witness said he returned several days later to Skopje carrying a bag handed to him by Metodij Manov. "I told him, 'Put it in my car, whatever it is; I don't want to look and I don't want to know what it is.'"

Stamenkovski said he met Vase near the Jevahir area, drove down into a garage to avoid parking, and was then confronted by police: "I didn't have time to tell him, the police came out into the garage immediately, within a minute." He added that Anakiev "did not touch it" when the bag was present in the car. The witness also told the court the arrest and subsequent events left him shaken and with lasting health problems.

During defence questioning, attorney Elenko Milanov asked whether Stamenkovski had told the Manov brothers that Anakiev personally demanded money; the witness responded: "I already answered that personally through me they did not ask." When asked if he personally heard Anakiev demand money at that meeting, Stamenkovski said he had already explained that messages had been written on his phone while he was away in the restroom.

Prosecutor Iskra Hadzhivasileva asked a final set of clarifying questions, including whether the Manov brothers had pressured him to bring money to Skopje. The witness confirmed that the bag was brought three or four days after the Manovs told him they were being asked for money. The trial in the case known as "Bribe in the Garage" continues.

Photo: DIZ)