Macedonian Court Dismisses Gruevski's Jail Sentence Appeal

Macedonia's Criminal Court in Skopje on Friday rejected appeals filed by former prime minister Nikola Gruevski to postpone his two-year jail sentence for the illicit purchase of a luxury Mercedes.

"The decision has been sent to the parties in the case and will become executive right after the parties receive it," the ruling said.

Gruevski has no more options to postpone his final jail verdict and will have to go to jail once he receives the ruling, which is expected to happen within the next few days.

Earlier on Friday, the government failed to summon a two-thirds majority to strip former prime minister of his mandate as a legislator, despite the jail verdict against him.

Only 58 MPs in the 120-seat parliament voted in favour of the motion, while 29 opposed removing Gruevski's mandate for moral reasons.

The Appeal Court confirmed a two-year jail sentence in the case codenamed "Tank" on October 5.

He was found guilty of illegally soliciting the secret purchase of a 580,000-euro Mercedes in 2012 from former Interior Minister Gordana Jankuloska, which he planned to use for his own purposes.

He was originally told by the criminal court to report to the prison in Shuto Orizari, near Skopje by November 8 at the latest.

However, he bought a few more days of freedom by clogging up the court with several appeals, filed individually by him and by each of his lawyers, seeking a postponement of the sentence.

By law, the court had to respond to each of these appeals separately. The deadline for that expires on Monday. In the event, the court decided on his appeals earlier.

Gruevski has insisted that this and other ongoing court cases against him were a political set-up, fixed by the new government led...