Velinovska, while she worked for the weekly Start, in several articles accused the leader of the DPA of taking DM1 million from the American corporation "Brown and Rut" via the Albanian "Alfa Credit Bank" as a fee for his "destruction of Macedonia". Xhaferi denied that he had any connection with foreigners. On the other hand the company "Brown and Rut" claimed that it had cooperated with certain Arben Xhaferi, a businessman from Albania, who was during the Kosovo crisis recruited to work for the needs of that company.
Mirka Velinovska, as the defendant, and Arben Xhaferi, as a plaintiff, were questioned during the yesterday's hearing.
Velinovska presented to the Criminal Court documents demonstrating that a transfer of funds had taken place. According to the documents, the company "Brown and Rut" via the Albanian "Alfa Credit Bank" transferred DM1,050,378 to Arben Xhaferi. The defendant presented documents indicating that in Tirana there is only one Arben Xhaferi, rather than four, as the other side had claimed. According to the defendant, the Albanian Xhaferi had no connection with the transaction.
The plaintiff, Xhaferi, stated that he never took that money from anyone and that he did not even know that the company "Brown and Rut" existed until he read Velinovska's article in Start.
Velinovska's defense counsel, lawyer Jovan Trpenovski, announced that he would sue the president of the DPA for slander as Xhaferi had told him that he had asked stupid questions.
The president of the Criminal Court Council adjourned the trial to allow Xhaferi's lawyer to find and bring to the court the person who cooperated with the American company.