The fleeing of former prime minister Nikola Gruevski is in the focus of today’s events as well. Minister of Interior, Oliver Spasovski, again stressed that the failure of the court to order detention enabled Nikola Gruevski to flee the country.
“We as countries do not have a bilateral agreement for extradition signed between Hungary and Macedonia, however, with the European Convention on Extradition, and based on Article 16 of that Convention, we have until been able to perform extradition of people with all the countries who have signed this Convention. There are no obstacles for the extradition to be carried out. The Ministry of Justice will initiate a procedure for extradition to the Hungarian authorities. I find it correct to have the request for asylum rejected and for Gruevski to be extradited to Macedonia for him to serve the sentence”, said Spasovski.
Prime Minister Zoran Zaev expects for Hungary to act upon the already issued international arrest warrant with which extradition of Gruevski is requested. At the same time, he justified the institutions, considering that there is no shortcoming on their part.
“Only if the border authorities have let him cross at the official border crossings and if the border police have made certain omissions. We immediately issued an order for the entire procedure to be investigated”, said Zaev.
In terms of the journalist question as to who will bear responsibility for Gruevski’s escape, Zaev replied that the Government cannot be responsible for everything and that it is acting according to the law.
“The judiciary is not under the part of the competency of Zaev as a prime minister. It is independent and brings its decisions free from any influence. I will just say again what a coward he is, who was saying the entire time that he is ready to go to prison for Macedonia regardless of what happens. That he is ready to accept the responsibility and so on. The time for accepting the responsibility came, he ran away from the country trying previously to receive new abolitions. That by itself confirms that he is guilty for what he is being convicted”, said Zaev.
There were also reactions from some of the Albanian political parties.
The leader of the Alliance for the Albanians, Zijadin Sela, demanded for Zaev to resign and for an expert government to be formed, following the escape of former prime minister Nikola Gruevski.
Sela demanded responsibility also from all of the concerned institutions, and from the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office to open a procedure for all those who have knowledge that they had organized and helped Gruevski escape from the country.
Sela also demanded early parliamentary elections that would be organized together with the presidential ones.
There were similar demands also from Besa of Kasami, from where they said that the bodies of prosecution have failed and allowed for Gruevski to escape, and that they should bear responsibility that Gruevski today is in Budapest instead of in prison in Shutka.
Former Minister of Transport and Communications, Mile Janakieski, and former Government Secretary General, Kiril Bozhinovski, received 30 days of detention, announced the basic Court Skopje 1.
Janakieski and Bozhinovski early this morning were detained and taken to the prison in Shutka. Their arrest comes after the escape of the former prime minister, Nikola Gruevski to Hungary, where he sought political asylum.
M.I
