Hodak said he would visit his client tomorrow and try to convince him to start eating. He also said he was satisfied with the testimonies of 21 witnesses recently heard in Skopje because they did not incriminate Boskoski. He added that once the testimonies were translated, which he expected to occur by the end of the week, he would file a new motion for his client's release.
Boskoski has been in detention since late August. He was arrested in Bale near Rovinj, Croatia, where he resided, on a warrant issued by Macedonian authorities.
Hodak said Boskoski would decide tomorrow whether to be interviewed by investigators from the Hague war crimes tribunal, who Hodak said were interested in Boskoski's role in clashes between Albanian rebels and Macedonian security forces three years ago when Boskoski was Macedonia's interior minister.
Hodak said he would suggest to his client to agree to the interview, which would then be held at Zagreb's District Prison between November 8 and 12.
The lawyer said Boskoski's consent to the interview would depend on his health given the existence of evidence that the Albanian rebels were killed with bullets used by the Macedonian army, and that Boskoski, in his capacity as interior minister, received an order directly from then Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski to involve the police in the clashes. Trajkovski was killed in a plane crash in February.
Hodak said he would file a constitutional complaint if the prosecution of Boskoski continued. The defence maintains that Boskovski's arrest breached the Vienna Convention under which diplomats can be arrested and detained only if the country they are arrested in punishes the crime in question with a minimum five years' imprisonment.
Hodak said that when he was arrested, Boskoski carried a diplomatic passport, as a member of the Macedonian parliament, which he added was not revoked although Boskoski was stripped of immunity in May and parliament okayed his prosecution.
Boskoski is accused of ordering the killing of seven economic immigrants from Pakistan and India in 2002, when he was Macedonia's interior minister. Given that he holds dual Macedonian and Croatian citizenship, and Croatia does not extradite its citizens to other countries, unless within cooperation with the Hague tribunal, the investigation was transferred from Macedonian to Croatian courts.