Macedonia Prosecutors and Police Tussle Over Wiretap Evidence

On a dramatic Friday night in Macedonia, Chief Special Prosecutor Katica Janeva personally intervened at the Beko police station in Skopje to ensure the release of an investigator who she said had been arrested for no good reason.

"The investigator was held without any grounds. We have no written document for his arrest," Janeva said, adding that the commander of the police station should explain the reasons.

Interior Minister Oliver Spasovski - who comes from the opposition - later clarified that the investigator was detained in an upscale district of Skopje while trying to photograph the presumed residence of former secret police chief Saso Mijalkov.

Mijalkov, along with his cousin, Nikola Gruevski, former Prime Minister and head of the main ruling VMRO DPMNE party, are accused of having masterminded a massive illegal wiretapping operation. They deny the allegations.

Minister Spasovski said he was doing his best to prevent Interior Ministry staff from harrassing and obstructing Janeva's special prosecution office, SJO, which was set up to probe high-profile crime and corruption.

Spasovski said the SJO investigator was apparently arrested on the orders of the regular prosecution after security staff around the building he tried to photograph called the police.

After securing the release of her staffer, Janeva headed towards the HQ of the Secret Police, UBK, where another SJO investigator was expelled while on duty there, guarding evidence of secret police wiretapping that the SJO is trying to obtain.

The SJO investigator reported being expelled just hours after Janeva and her team left the secret police HQ, after they had spent three days and nights there, trying to extract evidence under a court order....