Macedonia to File Gruevski Extradition Request

Macedonia has prepared its extradition request for former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and will likely send it to Hungary by the close of Tuesday, Macedonian Justice Minister Renata Deskoska told media.

"Our request will include not only the sentence regarding the case 'Tank' [in which Gruevski is to serve two years in jail for the illicit purchase of a luxury limo], but also all the other existing charges [against] Gruevski, all the investigations and pre-investigations," Deskoska said.

The announcement comes after Hungarian pro-government newspaper Magyar Idok published unconfirmed reports that Gruevski may have already been granted political asylum in Hungary.

Commenting on the reports, Deskoska said that Macedonia will send its extradition request regardless of whether they are true or not.

"Asylum procedures in Hungary last rather long, there are examples lasting for several months, except if they had carried out some extra speedy procedure," Deskoska said.

The Macedonian government's press service told BIRN on Tuesday that it was unable to yet confirm or deny whether Gruevski's asylum request has been successful or not.

Gruevski was supposed to report to start serving his two-year jail term on November 9, but failed to do so. On November 13, a post on his official Facebook account announced that he was in Budapest, and that he was asking for political asylum having receieved numerous threats on his life.

Hungarian authorities, who have confirmed Gruevski is on their territory, insisted that his request for asylum is a legal and not a political issue.

They stated that Gruevski's request was filed based on his claims that his life had been threatened, and that if he was returned to...