Justice Minister Mihajlo Manevski said the two-year project will promote contacts with Italy’s Ministry of Justice and the International Institute of Higher Studies in Criminal Sciences, based in Sicily, as well as Italian police officers who deal with organized crime.

“This project is timely. Macedonia has intensified its efforts to reform the judiciary system and is resolved to give the battle against organized crime and corruption the highest priority,” Manevski said.

Macedonia is hoping to start EU-entry talks next year, and has promised to crack down on organized crime networks as part of those commitments.

The Italian experts will help in a review of Macedonia’s legislative framework, recruit some 40 crime-fighting experts, provide training seminars, and help upgrade crime-fighting data systems.

The project is being sponsored by the European Agency for Reconstruction.

January 26, 2007 4:06 PM http://www.serbianna.com/news/2007/01110.shtml

Poletan has a dual citizenship – Macedonian and Serbian. According to latest information about her whereabouts, she is in Serbia, police said at today’s briefing in Skopje.

Macedonian Interior Ministry says Poletan’s companies had been involved in cigarettes and alcohol trading during the former Slobodan Milosevic’s regime.

The cocaine shipment was to be delivered to certain people in Greece, and its final destination was Western Europe.

Truck driver Alija Azirovic, Poleta’s close associate for more than 20 years, has been detained by Macedonian police.

Stanislava Chochorovska is said to have been linked with the long-serving chief of Macedonian secret police Slobodan Bogoevski. The both were born in Struga’s nearby village of Vevcani.

She become involved in the affair dating from the year 2000, when she threatened to disclose a video footage showing friendly ties between some Macedonian citizens and Slobodan Milosevic’s son Marko including his former friend Vlado Kovacevic alias Tref. They were claimed to have been in charge of whiskey and cigarette smuggling at Serbian market.

Chochorovska is also under an investigation into suspected illegal transfers of football players from Obilic club, owned by Zheljko Razjnjatovic also known as Arkan.

She i9s married to Ranko Poletan, a former commander of Arkan’s paramilitary unit Tigers. /end/

Skopje, 9.01.2007 14:50, MAKFAX, http://www.makfax.com.mk/look/novina/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=2&NrArticle=50211&NrIssue=240&NrSection=10