Macedonian nationalists

Macedonian businessman Orce Kamcev and former secret police chief Saso Mijalkov are among 13 persons suspected of a series of crimes, as part of a new investigation launched by the country's Special Prosecution, codenamed "Empire".

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.

The Criminal Court in Skopje confirmed on Friday that it has handed a 'referral act' to ex-premier Nikola Gruevski, saying he should start serving his jail sentence at the prison in Shuto Orizari, near Skopje, on November 8 at the latest.

Macedonia's former interior minister, Gordana Jankuloska, was jailed for six years on Monday in a first-instance verdict for "misuse of office", for her involvement in the illegal purchase of a luxury Mercedes in 2012 that the former prime minister, Nikola Gruevski, had used secretly.

Maceodnia's Appeals Court on Friday confirmed former prime minister Nikola Gruevski's two-year jail sentence.

Macedonia's ex-Prime Minister and former ruling VMRO DPMNE party leader Nikola Gruevski is involved in a legal race against time that will determine whether he will serve his two-year jail sentence which was handed down in a first-instance verdict in May, or not have to serve any jail time because the statute of limitations has passed.

More than 1,000 previously unreleased wiretapped audio recordings are expected to be heard on Friday and next week at the ongoing trial of former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and other former government officials who are charged with allegedly masterminding electoral fraud in 2013.

Skopje Criminal Court on Friday found the businessmen Sead Kocan and one other guilty of falsifying documents in 2011 to win a 17-million-euros tender to extract coal from the Suvodol mine near the town of Bitola for the state power company, ELEM.

The tender was awarded to his consortium in 2012.

Prime Minister Zoran Zaev has set up a meeting with leaders of the opposition and other parliamentary parties for Wednesday afternoon, aimed at ending the opposition's informal blockade of the planned referendum on the name deal with Greece which is aimed at clearing the country's way towards NATO and EU membership.

The recent two-year sentence handed down to Nikola Gruevski Macedonia's former conservative Prime Minister and ex-leader of the right-wing VMRO DPMNE party - for involvement in the illicit secret purchase of a luxury Mercedes - is not the end of his judicial troubles.

Gruevski currently faces criminal charges in four more cases, three of which have already gone to trial.