The trial of Vase Anakiev resumed - the former head of the State Agricultural Inspectorate and deputy leader of the Socialist Party of Macedonia, a party that sits in the governing coalition. At the second hearing, the man who reported him took the stand: Metodi Manov, owner of a company from Delčevo.

His testimony is short and uncomfortably specific. He says Anakiev pressured him repeatedly and kept sending surprise inspections his way. And that in the end, through a middleman, he was asked for 100,000 euros - so that his trucks carrying artificial fertiliser could clear customs and cross the border. That is the going rate for a "yes" from a man whose job is to check compliance, not to sell it.

Anakiev was detained in March, in an underground car park in central Skopje. Police found 50,000 euros under the passenger seat of his car - notes marked in advance. Prosecutors say that was the first instalment.

The defence: there was a demand, just not from him

His lawyers are building a different story. According to the defence, Anakiev neither asked for money nor had any contact with the businessman - and the hearing itself backed that up, they say, because the businessman did not testify that the director personally demanded a bribe from him. The hundred thousand, they argue, was demanded by a third party: a freight forwarder.

The defence also flags what it calls a telling detail: after the alleged bribe demand, a ban was introduced on importing this type of fertiliser in bulk through border crossings - a decision that, they say, is still in force. The prosecution is not moving: it says it has hard evidence and phone recordings that back the indictment.

So, two versions. In one, the inspectorate was charging admission to the market. In the other, a freight forwarder did all of it, and 50,000 euros in marked notes simply happened to end up under the director's passenger seat.

The question nobody is asking out loud

Even if the court acquits Anakiev tomorrow, one detail survives any verdict: for this scheme to work - a surprise inspection, then a message through a middleman - you need a system in which inspection can be used as a club. Who built that lever, and how many companies have quietly paid instead of doing what Manov did?

That is why this case must not end in quiet silence. A man who reports is a rarity in a country where bribes get paid because it is faster, cheaper and safer than reporting. If he ends up as the only one who gets the surprise inspections back, nobody will report the next one.