Page 13 - bne_newspaper_November_16_2018

Southeast Europe
November 16, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 13
Macedonian ex-PM flees to Budapest to avoid prison term
Valentina Dimitrievska in Skopje
Macedonia’s former prime minister Nikola Gruevski has run away from the country to Budapest, where he is seeking political asylum, Gruevski announced on November 13.
Gruevski was sentenced in the case known as “Tank” for using his position to influence officials from the interior ministry when he was in power to purchase a €600,000 luxury Mercedes from budget money. Tank is one of several cases pursued by Macedonia’s Special Prosecutors concerning corruption among top officials from VMRO-DPMNE, which ruled the country between 2006 and 2017. Gruevski is a former head of the party.
Despite being sentenced, Gruevski failed to appear at prison to serve his two-year sentence by the November 8 deadline. He disappeared after the court rejected his lawyers’ request for the sentence to be postponed. Police issued an arrest warrant for Gruevski on November 12 after court couriers were unable to find him at home.
Gruevski announced his whereabouts in a Facebook post the following day. “In the last few days I have received many life threats. I am in Budapest now, and I sought political asylum from the Hungarian authorities,” Gruevski said in a Facebook post. Gruevski is known to have close ties with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
He added: “I will always remain faithful to the Macedonian cause. I will never give up.”
Gruevski is seeking asylum in Hungary, ruled by his close ally Viktor Orban.
It is not clear how Gruevski, whose passport had been seized by the court that tried him, left his home country. According to police, Gruevski did not pass through any border points legally.
The Macedonia's interior ministry said it has received confirmation from the Hungarian ministry that Gruevski is in Hungary and that he has applied for asylum.
"The ministry informed the Basic Court Skopje 1, after which the court should issue a decision for issuing an international warrant for the convicted person, Nikola Gruevski," the Macedonian ministry said.
The Special Public Prosecutor's Office will wait for official confirmation that Gruevski has demanded political asylum in Hungary before it decides whether to order detention for other defendants whose court processes are underway.
Gruevski, who was prime minister from 2006 to 2016, has denied the charges against him in the Tank case, saying the verdict had a political background.
This was the first verdict for Gruevski, 48, who also faces trials in another four cases launched by the Special Prosecutor’s Office.
The conservative VMRO-DPMNE party went into opposition following the wiretapping scandal revealed by Social Democrat leader and now