“This morning, in a police operation in Struga and Gostivar, four people for whom there’s reasonable suspicion that they’d been planning to organise, in the future, certain undesired events that could compromise the security of both Macedonia and other countries, were arrested,” Interior Minister Pance Toskovski said on Sunday.
As he explained, the operation was carried out following orders by the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office for Prosecution of Organised Crime and Corruption and a judge in the previous procedure.
“It’s about terrorist organisations, four persons that were deprived of liberty. They, in cooperation with people who are not on Macedonia’s territory have been followed for a longer period of time by relevant security organs. In cooperation with international friends, there was coordinated action,” the Minister said.
Their goal, he stressed, was to indoctrinate other peoples in the Balkans that could act to carry out their objectives. After the process before a judge in the previous procedure, proper proceedings will be initiated against the four persons, who are citizens of North Macedonia.
“The act the charge concerns is terrorist organisation. When it comes to the motives, we have reasonable suspicion that they’re linked to certain groups that support certain extremist and religious groups,” the Minister stressed.