After the Ministry of Justice yesterday informed that they had received notification that Nikola Gruevski is in Budapest, the preparation of the necessary documentation for his extradition has started.
The Cabinet Chief of the Hungarian Prime Minister claims that Gruevski had declared his intention to seek asylum in Hungary at a Hungarian Embassy outside of Macedonia. Gergely Gulyas does not reveal in which country that embassy is in, nor how Gruevski arrived to Budapest, where the documents are submitted.
Following the many speculations in the media about how Gruevski arrived to Hungary without a passport, Bulgarian Prime Minister Borisov today publically denied the writings that the former prime minister has a Bulgarian passport. Previously the Bulgarian Ministry of Justice also denied the news.
Former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski has neither requested, nor has been issued a Bulgarian passport. This is entirely incorrect information, stated Prime Minister Borisov.
Hungary has 15 days to decide on Gruevski’s asylum request. If the request is accepted, Gruevski could realize the right to asylum in the period from mid-January until end of March next year.
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nikola Dimitrov, today had a telephone conversation with his Hungarian colleague Peter Siyarto, in relation to the submitted asylum request to the Hungarian authorities by former Prime Minister, Nikola Gruevski.
During the conversation, Dimitrov had pointed out that this case concerns a convict, against whom there are several other court procedures being led for serious crimes, and stressed the importance of the principle of the rule of law, as a fundamental European principle.
“Minister Siyarto in the telephone conversation confirmed the information that Nikola Gruevski has submitted a request for asylum to the competent Hungarian authorities, and that the legal procedure has already started. At the same time, he emphasized that the Hungarian support for realization of the aspirations of Republic of Macedonia for a European and Euro-Atlantic integration, as well as the good bilateral cooperation between the two countries will continue in the future”, announced the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Government spokesperson Mile Boshnjakovski today informed that MOI’s internal control has already started with examining the possible involvement of representatives of the police in the plan for Gruevski’s escape. The MOI is investigating in which way Gruevski left Macedonia, as well as if he had outside helpers.
Currently two investigations are being led in the Ministry of Interior in order to determine how the escape of former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski had been organized and who helped him with that.
In the context of the scandal with Nikola Gruevski’s escape, Civil – Center for Freedom through an announcement today once again reminded that the public has the right to know which institutions, officials and other structures are involved in this scandal.
“The public has the right to demand responsibility and measures that will guarantee that such a thing will not happen in the future.
CIVIL supports the reactions of the civil society organizations and joins the demands for an urgent, deep and transparent investigation of all the aspects of this scandal, starting from the institutions not being up-to-date, primarily the prosecution and the court, and certainly the police, and up to other factors that have contributed to such a serious scandal to break out”, is said in CIVIL’s announcement”.
The organization also sent an appeal to the Hungarian government to reject Nikola Gruevski’s request for political asylum and to extradite him back to Macedonia with the quickest possible procedure.
The Ministry of Justice announced that it is preparing a draft law for the Special Prosecutor’s Office, which should be completed by the end of the month.
“The law has the purpose of regulating the status, competencies and other issues related to the Special Prosecutor’s Office. Judges, public prosecutors, international organizations will be involved in the drafting of the law”, announced the Ministry.
Deputy Minister of Environment, Jani Makraduli, today at a press conference presented “The plan for clean air”, according to which a reduction in air pollution of 50% is anticipated for Skopje and from 30% to 50% for other cities in the following two years.
Makraduli called the decision of yesterday’s government session, where air pollution was identified as a strategic priority for the following year, as “historic”, adding that it shows the clearly expressed political will and enables an integrated and coordinated approach in the fight against pollution.
Following today’s hearing for the SPO “TNT” case, the lawyer of former minister Mile Janakieski opposed the official note from the UBK that claims that Janakieski had the intention to escape, just as Nikola Gruevski, after President Ivanov had refused to pardon him.
It is precisely this note that is the basis for Janakieski’s 30 – day detention.
CIVIL – Center for Freedom organized the panel discussion “Losing the identity or…?” today (November 15, 2018), at Hotel City Park, starting at 1.00 pm. At the panel discussion, about a dozen experts and creators of public opinion had 10-minute presentations in which they addressed the identity and social-political issues related to the process of overcoming the Macedonian-Greek name dispute.
At the panel discussion, the views and analyses of Zvezdan Georgievski, Petar Bogojevski, Mirjana Maleska, Mersiha Smailovik, Vojo Manevski, Sasho Ordanoski, Katerina Kolozova, Ljubco Georgievski, Mirjana Najcevska were presented, as well as of Sinisa Stankovic and Diana Tahiri from CIVIL. The moderator of the discussion was Xhabir Deralla from CIVIL.
М. I.
