Court in Stip gives Consent for warrant for Igor Spasov’s arrest

Stip’s Basic Court has given consent for a warrant for the arrest of Igor Spasov. Since Monday, authorities have been looking for him with warrant on the country’s territory. A week ago, Spasov, who sentenced in 2012 to 14 years in prison for the murder of Martin Neskovski during the celebration of VMRO-DPMNE’s election victory the previous year, was supposed to return to prison, from where he’d been released for treatment, but that didn’t happen. The Court will be notified if he isn’t found on Macedonia’s territory. Afterwards, it will issue consent for an international warrant. The same day, Kanal 77  said Spasov had escaped to Turkey. According to unofficial information, he used illegal channels and is abroad under somebody else’s identity. Spasov used the temporary release to organise the escape. His former fellow police officers were of big help in that regard, it’s been found out. “Igor Spasov is unavailable to prosecution organs. Stip’s Internal Affairs Sector has notified the Court that he’s unavailable and at large. As a result, the Court has immediately issued consent to issue a warrant to find him on the Republic of North Macedonia’s territory,” the Court’s spokesperson, Julijana Netkova, pointed out. Commenting on the case, Interior Minister Oliver Spasovski said the search had started after the police had been informed that Spasov hadn’t returned to prison. As he added, the Justice Ministry has the competence when a person is in prison, with penitentiary institutions making decisions on the basis of own assessments that should match proper information about whether prisoners should be temporarily released and under which conditions that should be done.