A 1.14-million-euro guarantee for the former head of the State Lottery, while his asset declaration lists a Škoda and a 10,000-euro loan

A criminal panel of the Skopje Basic Criminal Court has accepted a guarantee in real estate worth 1,140,781 euros, and the former director of Macedonia's State Lottery, Perparim Bajrami, will walk out of Skopje prison as soon as the mortgage is entered in the land register. The decision is final - the prosecutor and the other parties waived their right to appeal.

Bajrami is the first defendant in the "Lottery" case, charged with "abuse of official position and authority", an offence that carries up to five years in prison. The indictment was filed on August 13. He was remanded in custody because he was not available to the prosecuting authorities, and on September 9 he turned himself in. The legal limit for custody in this case is 60 days and runs out on November 8. The defence had filed the guarantee proposal back on October 14.

On top of the guarantee, the court imposed precautionary measures: his passport is confiscated, he may not obtain a new travel document and he must report to the court regularly. The man who wasn't available to the prosecutors will now have to report to them regularly of his own accord.

The more interesting question is the money. In his asset declaration to the State Anti-Corruption Commission, Bajrami listed an inherited house in Kumanovo registered to his parents, a Škoda car and a 10,000-euro loan he has to repay by 2031. The guarantee, on the other hand, is real estate worth more than a million euros. Whose property that is - his, his family's or a third party's - the court statement doesn't say.

On its own this proves nothing. Someone else can provide a guarantee, and a defendant is presumed innocent until a court rules otherwise. But when the former head of a state company with a modest declared fortune secures a mortgage of more than a million euros, it is natural to ask: will the Anti-Corruption Commission open the file, or will it wait for someone else to open it instead?