Hungary Refuses to Extradite Gruevski to North Macedonia

A court in Hungary has rejected a demand from North Macedonia for former prime minister Nikola Gruevski to be extradited to start serving his two-year prison sentence for illegally soliciting the secret purchase of a 580,000-euro Mercedes in 2012.

North Macedonia also demanded his extradition as one of the suspected organisers of the April 2017 mob attack on parliament, when supporters of his then ruling VMRO DPMNE party stormed the building in Skopje and attacked opposition MPs and journalists.

Although the court session in Budapest was closed, Gruevski's unusual appearance when entering the building caught media attention. He appeared in handcuffs, covered by his jacket, sun glasses and with a baseball hat on his head.

After courts in North Macedonia found Gruevski guilty of the illicit purchase of a luxury limousine, he was supposed to report to start serving his two-year jail term on November 9 last year. He failed to do so, having slipped out of the country.

He escaped first to neighbouring Albania and then, with the help of Hungarian diplomats, reached Budapest where he applied for asylum. He obtained his request, reportedly thanks to his close ties to Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban.

The long-standing leader of the right-wing VMRO DPMNE party and prime minister from 2006 until 2016 was widely accused of authoritarian behaviour and of fostering corruption.

He maintains that he is the victim of a political setup, and claims that had he stayed in the country and gone to jail, he might have been assassinated.