The Financial Police Office searched homes and people at several locations and detained two people in a new investigation into the State Lottery. The suspicion is serious: officials allegedly embezzled budget money totalling almost 80 million denars, or around 1.3 million euros. According to unofficial information, those detained include the lottery's former head of finance, and the suspicions date back to the period when the institution was run by Perparim Bajrami.

The prosecution is not releasing names. It says only that this is one segment of several preliminary investigations into the State Lottery, announced back when Bajrami returned to the country after fleeing. So this is not the end of the story - just the next episode.

While the financial police were going through homes, the Skopje Basic Criminal Court was hearing the case against Bajrami, former deputy prime minister Artan Grubi and six other defendants. The indictment alleges they organised video-lottery games of chance without having the right to do so, buying video-lottery terminals worth 9.7 million euros for the purpose - terminals still owned by the State Lottery.

And here comes the part that raises the real question. At the hearing on 2 October, the prosecution's key witness changed his statement in favour of the defendants. He now says he does not know Grubi and never saw Bajrami at meetings with him. Prosecutors could not read out his earlier statement, because his status had been changed in the meantime - during the investigation he was a suspect, but he came to court as a witness.

One hand of the state makes arrests, the other trips over itself in the courtroom. If the new 80-million-denar investigation ends like the video-lottery trial, with a witness changing his story in front of the judge, who will answer for it? And how many preliminary investigations does one institution need before anyone gets to a verdict?