The Public Prosecutor's Office informed that five of the eight persons charged with corruption following the raid at the Economic Faculty, have had their passports seized by the court in charge.
Detention was not ordered in this case, because the suspects are not believed to be in position to further influence the witnesses, who are likely students that complained about being forced to pay bribes, and in some cases, allegedly asked for sexual favors.
Public Prosecutor Lidija Raicevic said that the case was being investigated since 2015, and the suspects include six full-time professors, one teaching assistant and the manager of the campus cafeteria.
Media reports indicated that two well-known professors, Taki Fiti, who is also the head of the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, and former Faculty Dean Bobek Suklev, are among those charged.
Prosecutors only said that all charged professors are individuals who are well known to the public, but only named Suklev, who was detained at the faculty parking lot after receiving EUR 1,000, marked by a student who has reported the bribery request to the police.
"At the moment when the Prosecutor's Office received confirmation from the Interior Ministry of the evidence that has been collected, we decided to ask for cautionary seizure of passports, instead of asking for detention. The nature of the case is very grave, and the victims here are students who were exposed to pressure for a long period of time, were left indisposed in terms of taking their exams. We had received corruption allegations about the faculty since 2014. These are secretive crimes which are difficult to uncover as the perpetrators are intellectuals and people of high public standing. We have undertaken special investigative measures to secure evidence, and these measures resulted in the police operation to detain Professor Bobek Suklev", Raicevic said at a press conference on Wednesday.
Raicevic confirmed that two of the suspects have sought sexual favors from students, adding that evidence has been secured in this regard.
She dismissed media questions whether the principle of university autonomy has been violated with the police raid, adding that the police had only half an hour notice to react once it received information that Professor Suklev is preparing to receive the bribe.