The Skopje-based Criminal Court has approved the issuance of an international arrest warrant for Sasho Mijalkov by the Ministry of Interior.
The Ministry of Interior requested today an approval from the court on the issuance of an international arrest warrant for the defendant, who was given a house arrest order on Sunday. The court approved the issuance of an international arrest warrant, the court said in a press release.
As of Sunday afternoon, ex-secret police chief Sasho Mijalkov has not been available to law enforcement officials and the police failed to find him and hand over the house arrest order.
The prosecution filed a request for house arrest due to the danger of escape pending the trial verdict in the “Target-Fortress” case on Feb. 26, in which Mijalkov is one of the defendants. The prosecutors, who delivered the closing arguments at the previous hearing in the case, demanded maximum prison sentence for Mijalkov.
According to the indictment, between 2008 and 2015, the defendants, including ex-interior minister Gordana Jankulovska and ex-secret police chief Sasho Mijalkov, by using three different surveillance systems for intercepting communications as part of the former secret police, illegally wiretapped close to 4,300 telephone numbers without obtaining court orders to do so.
The court is expected to hand down the verdict in the trial on Feb. 26.
