ZCZC
BFF-70
MACEDONIA-POLITICS-CRIME
Wanted Macedonian leader says seeking asylum in Hungary
SKOPJE, Nov 13, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Macedonia’s former prime minister Nikola
Gruevski, who has been sentenced to jail for abuse of power, said Tuesday he
was in Hungary where he has requested political asylum.
Macedonian authorities on Monday issued a warrant for the arrest of
Gruevski, who dominated the country for nearly a decade until 2016, after he
failed to turn up at the prison to start his two-year sentence.
“I am now in Budapest, where I have requested political asylum from the
Hungarian authorities,” the 48-year-old wrote on his official Facebook page.
“During the past couple of days I have received numerous threats on my
life.”
Saying he was a victim of politically motivated persecution, Gruevski wrote
that he remained “faithful to the Macedonian cause”, adding: “I will not give
up.”
In the past Gruevski has indicated he was close to Hungarian Prime Minister
Viktor Orban.
In 2017, Orban publicly supported Gruevski during his campaign for
municipal elections in which Gruevski’s rightwing VMRO-DPMNE party lost to
the ruling Social Democrats.
Skopje said it was checking with Budapest about Gruevski’s whereabouts.
“We suspect that (Gruevski) has fled,” Macedonian Interior Minister Oliver
Spasovski told AFP.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said Budapest did not “wish to
confirm or deny information regarding (Gruevski’s) current location”.
“We are not in a position to comment on ongoing asylum applications,”
Szijjarto added.
Gruevski was convicted in May of using a 600,000-euro ($676,009) government
Mercedes for personal travel. A Skopje court upheld the sentence in October.
– ‘No idea where Gruevski is’ –
He resigned as leader of VMRO-DPMNE in 2016 after a scandal over
allegations of widespread wire-tapping of his opponents.
Gruevski also faces a number of other charges of corruption, abuse of
power, electoral fraud as well as illegal wiretapping.
The cases come at a tense time in the Balkan nation, with a new ruling
coalition trying to push through a deal to change the country’s name to end a
long-running row with Greece.
When he was in power, Gruevski took a hardline stance against changing the
country’s name to resolve the dispute with Greece, which has its own province
called Macedonia.
Greece has blocked Skopje’s entry into NATO and the European Union over the
issue for nearly 30 years.
VMRO-DPMNE now appears divided over changing the country’s name.
A party spokesman said it had “no idea where the honorary president
(Gruevski) is or what he is doing”.
Spokesman Dimce Arsovski said he last saw Gruevski “nine or 10 months ago”.
“I don’t know when current president (Hristijan) Mickoski spoke to him for
the last time,” he told a press conference.
BSS/AFP/MRI/2348 hrs