Macedonia: Row Over Escaped Trafficker

A notorious human trafficker’s escape from jail has highlighted flaws in the Macedonian judiciary which could hamper the authorities’ efforts to stamp out organised crime.

Dilaver “Leku” Bojku escaped from the minimum-security Struga prison, where he was serving a six-month sentence for forcing a woman into prostitution, on June 20.

Struga prison director Dragan Petreski and senior prisons official Ljupco Sapcevski were both dismissed five days later and are now facing criminal charges over the incident, as is a Macedonian security guard present when Bojku made his dash for freedom.

But Macedonian prime minister Branko Crvenkovski has placed the blame for Bojku’s escape firmly on the republic’s judicial system, which is perceived to be inefficient and in need of a radical overhaul.

The escape was also seen as a serious blow to the government's efforts to fight organised crime and trafficking, as Macedonia is seen both as a transit route and a final destination for trafficked women. Bojku is alleged to be a key player in the business.

Bojku, an ethnic Albanian, was in custody at Struga open prison on June 12, when the Bitola appeal court overturned his original sentence and ordered a retrial.

The prisoner was to be transferred to Ohrid jail on June 20, accompanied by two ethnic Albanian guards and a Macedonian. But as they walked toward a police van at the prison gates, the un-handcuffed Bojku ran to a waiting car and simply drove away.

On June 26, interior minister Hari Kostov told parliament, "We believe that [his] escape was well-organised," but refused to go into further details.

However, three days earlier, he told the media that he had previously raised objections to the court’s decision to send the trafficker to Struga, saying, “Since we first heard that Bojku was to serve his sentence in an open prison and work at [an outside] company, we immediately said that this was unacceptable.

“But we were consistently told that this was in compliance with the law. If that was the case, where is Bojku now?”

The minister added that Bojku is believed to have fled Macedonia, and that his department would cooperate fully with the United Nations Mission in Kosovo and the Albanian authorities to bring the fugitive back to justice.

Bojku has faced 22 criminal charges in the past decade – half of which involved forced prostitution.

He allegedly controlled more than a dozen of bars and hotels in the west of the country and mainly operated out of the village of Velesta, near Struga – an area notorious for its brothels and which, until recently, was perceived to be above the law.

Bojku was arrested in Struga on February 7 and later found guilty of forcing a Romanian woman into prostitution between September 2001 and February 2002.

The six-month prison sentence he received was “lenient” because of a lack of evidence, according to judicial sources. According to amendments in the country’s criminal laws which were adopted in March 2002, the minimum punishment for trafficking is four years in prison, with those who force prostitution on their victims receiving a minimum of five years.

On June 25, the government concluded that there were a number of irregularities in the case, starting from the length of the prison sentence handed down and the choice of jail. It ordered the sacking of Petreski and Sapcevski, and recommended that the Ministry of Justice commence disciplinary procedures against the Struga prison guards.

Interior minister Kostov said that there was a very real danger that this kind of incident could be repeated unless steps were taken. "Until every one of us in this country learns to fulfil our responsibilities, this sort of thing will continue to happen, and the biggest criminals and pimps will wander freely,” he said.

“The interior ministry cannot be held responsible for everything, as some of these competencies lay with the court and the prosecution services.”

Sase Dimovski is a journalist with Sitel TV in Macedonia