Macedonian Opposition Tapes Lift Lid on Boskoski Arrest

Macedonia's opposition Social Democratic party, SDSM, published seven more conversations on Friday, which the party said showed the arrest of opposition politician Ljube Boskoski was a setup.

Ljube Boskoski, a former Interior Minister and former leader of the United for Macedonia party, was arrested on June 6th 2011, one day after the general elections of that year.

He was later jailed for five years in prison for illegally financing his political campaign.

In one conversation that allegedly took place on election day, June 5, 2011, a voice that SDSM leader Zoran Zaev attributed to the chief of the secret police Saso Mijalkov, tells the chief editor of Sitel TV, Dragan Pavlovic-Latas there will be some big news. "We will talk tomorrow and you will see what I mean," he says.

In another conversation, again allegedly between Mijalkov and Pavlovic, on the day after the elections, June 6 - when Boskoski was arrested - the former says of the arrested politician: "He was lying there for a half-hour on his stomach, handcuffed. Journalists came, taking pictures and he was screaming and crying: 'Saso Mijalkov set me up," Mijalkov adds: "Boskoski will get eight years for this."

In other conversation, again allegedly between Mijalkov and Pavlovic, the former tells Pavlovic that he is unhappy with the way the news of the arrest was being presented on TV. "Channel 5 did it three times better than you, what's the problem?" Mijalkov asks.

"We will publish [the shots of the arrest] for five days. I will speak [to colleagues] now," Pavlovic allegedly answers.

In another conversation, which the SDSM claims was between Mijalkov and the previous owner of Channel 5 TV, Emil Stojmenov, Stojmenov congratulates Mijalkov on the...