SkopjeDiem Macedonia in English
On his official Facebook profile, on Tuesday, former PM Nikola Gruevski said he’d been given granted political asylum in Hungary due to political persecution in Macedonia from the SDSM-led government. According to Gruevski, he has received information that preparations are underway to kill him in prison. The former VMRO-DPMNE leader added he continued the struggle for the “Macedonian cause”. The former PM considers that he hasn’t run away from justice. Instead, he stressed, by using other internationally legally regulated methods, he continues to seek justice for both himself and “all other victims of the political persecution in Macedonia”. As Gruevski also pointed out in the longer post, though Macedonia needs to join the EU and NATO, the current “undemocratic” government mustn’t be allowed, under the pretext of that goal, to confront those that don’t share its political views and fabricate court cases and prison sentences for them so that it can smoothly engage in “a sale of state and national interests, corruption and crime”. In response, the Macedonian Government said there had never been any political persecution against Gruevski. No threats against his life were registered, it pointed out, adding that “no governmental institution made threats on his life” either. The Government therefore considers that Gruevski’s only goal is to escape justice. It expects, as it pointed out, authorities in Budapest to unconditionally accept the extradition request sent the same day by the Justice Ministry and provide, in accordance with respect for international law, as an EU and NATO member, a return of Gruevski to Macedonia in order for him to serve jail time and face the other cases in which he is a defendant. SDSM, too, continued to criticise the former PM. “The convicted criminal has confirmed he’s a liar and coward. He will serve jail time in Macedonia,” the ruling party pointed out.
