North Macedonia's former special prosecutor was sentenced to seven years in jail on Thursday for abetting a bribery deal that eased pressure on a businessman suspected of money laundering. Katica Janeva, convicted on charges of abuse of power, led a special prosecutor's office with a mandate to prosecute high-level political crime in the Balkan state until her own graft scandal erupted in 2019. The Skopje court found she agreed "softer measures" for detained businessman Orce Kamcev in a deal with her close friend Bojan Jovanovski, a TV channel owner who took a 1.5 million euro bribe to get the job done. The lenient measures involved moving the suspect from prison to house detention, and then ultimately lifting that restriction as well with a plan to eventually let him off the hook with only a fine, the verdict said. Janeva "has destroyed the trust of the public in the justice system", Skopje's criminal court said in a ruling that can be appealed. The judges also handed Jovanovski a nine-year sentence. Janeva was arrested in August 2019 after her involvement was disclosed by right-wing Italian newspaper, La Verita, which published audio and video recordings that purported to show she was in on the bribery. The case she was prosecuting against Kamcev, meanwhile, has yet to be brought to court. str-ssm/bp