Macedonian Police Suspected of Ex-Minister's Torture

The Special Prosecution tasked with investigating high-level crime said on Monday that it suspects a former secret police chief and six other police officers of "torture and inhumane treatment" during Boskoski's arrest in 2011.

The head of the secret police on the day of the arrest on June 6, 2011 was Saso Mijalkov, a cousin of the ruling VMRO DPMNE party leader, Nikola Gruevski.

Deputy special prosecutor Fatime Fetai said that the rough treatment of Boskoski appeared to be intended as a public message to other government opponents.

"In this case, based on the evidence acquired, there is suspicion that all those involved were very interested in the entire public seeing the unscrupulous brutality of the police forces during the arrest of an political opponent," Fetai told a press conference in Skopje.

Fetai said that the police officers carrying out the arrest were instructed by their superiors to "use excessive force and intimidation" to humiliate Boskoski, even though he did not put up any resistance.

Boskoski was first filmed in handcuffs pressed against the ground, then later made to stand for 30 minutes facing an outdoor toilet.

During this time, he was filmed by TV crews and subjects to insults, some directed at his wife, mother and children, and a handgun was held against his face.

"We see the way Boskovski was apprehended as the problem, not the legality of the case against him," Lence Risteska, another deputy special prosecutor, told the press conference.

According to Macedonian law, if found guilty, the suspects face prison terms ranging from three to eight years.

Boskoski, a former interior minister and ex-leader of the small right-wing United for Macedonia party, was arrested in 2011 and later...