Trial for Vanja and Pance murder continues on March 17

The trial of Vanja and Pance's murder continues on Monday after a Skopje Basic Criminal Court was heard today, one of the defendants. Manev said today that he knows all the defendants, except with the father of the killed girl. He said he coordinated Ljupco Palevski Palevski for the kidnapping and that he thought they only had to carry out abductions and was surprised when Palcho was shot by Vanja and Pance.

Manev also stated that with the now deceased Pance Zezhovski he knew that he worked at his house 15-16 years ago, when he was obliged and did not pay him for the work. He took the police from the SIA Veles to the site « Runnik » in Veles, where together with Vlatko Kesishev dug Zemunica in order to « keep the abducted persons and to be released after a collection ».

Responding to questions from his defender today, the defendant explained the abduction of Vanja and Pance, pointing out that the coordinator and perpetrator of the killings was Palevski. He stressed that after Pance's murder, he continued to abduct Vanja for fear and threats from Palevski and his family.

Manev stressed that they thought they had to kidnap a woman at 38-40 and that they had tried to change their minds after seeing they had kidnapped a child. At the same time, he said that the abductions were promised 150,000 euros.

He claimed that Vanja's father, Aleksandar Gjorcevski, was not involved in the case.

Manev also pointed out that he was subjected to torture during his interrogations, which he said there was evidence.

The prosecution then proposed to read the statement given to the prosecution because of the differences with today's statement. After the statement was read, the judge suspended the hearing and decided to continue on Monday, also with Manev's hearing.

According to the announcement, after the hearing of Manev, Bore Videvski, Vlatko Kesishev, Aleksandar Gjorcevski and finally Palevski should testify.

According to the indictment, Ljupco Palevski, Bore Videvski, Velibor Manev, Vlatko Kesishov and Aleksandar Gjorcevski, are accused of planning the abduction of 14-year-old Vanja in order to force a member of her immediate family to give money for ransom. The abduction of the damaged Pance Zezhovski in Veles, on the indictment, was intended to force him to give their own « Citroen » vehicle to use the child to abduct the child in Skopje.

Juvenile Vanja and Pance Veles were reported missing on November 27 and 24, and on December 3, 2023, dead were found near Skopje and Veles.