North Macedonia’s Ex-Secret Police Chief Vanishes Before Verdict

Authorities in North Macedonia confirmed on Monday that they have issued a national arrest warrant for former secret police chief Saso Mijalkov, after police fruitlessly tried to find him at several locations in the capital, Skopje, on Sunday evening, to escort him to house detention on court orders. The authorities are expected to issue an international arrest warrant as well.

The court order for his house detention came on Sunday ahead of a high-profile verdict on the massive wiretapping scandal in which Mijalkov is the principal suspect and defendant. The verdict in the case, in which he stood trial along with 11 other former state and police officials, is expected on Friday.

The search for the former secret police chief has so far been futile. Police on Sunday could not find him at his home in Skopje or in the Marriot hotel, a frequent venue of his, where the media last spotted him in public on Sunday afternoon. Searches of vehicles exiting the capital also yielded no results.

Mijalkov is accused of masterminding the massive illegal wiretapping of hundreds of people during the authoritarian reign of his cousin, former prime minister Nikola Gruevski, who fled the country more than two years ago. He headed the secret police from 2006 to 2015.

He appeared regularly at court sessions during the wiretapping trial, which was codenamed "Target-Fortress" by the prosecution, and pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The verdict in the Target-Fortress trial is expected to provide answers to a key question: who ordered the mass surveillance of people during Gruevski's time in office?

In recent years, Mijalkov has been placed several times in detention or under house arrest as a suspect in other cases that arose from the revelations...