Politics of the Republic of Macedonia

Ex prime minister of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia Nikola Gruevski has sought asylum at a Hungarian representation outside FYROM, Budapest said on Thursday, after he fled to Hungary earlier this week.

Gruevski, who resigned in 2016 after 10 years in power, left for Budapest six months after he was sentenced to two years in prison on corruption-related charges.

After the Macedonian Interior Ministry said former prime minister Nikola Gruevski had fled to Hungary and was applying for political asylum there, an EU spokesperson told BIRN that Brussels was following events and hoped the case would not be politicised. 

The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) will seek the arrest with an international warrant of conservative former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski after confirming he fled to Hungary to avoid serving a two-year prison sentence for corruption, authorities said Tuesday.

Amid an ongoing police search for Nikola Gruevski in Macedonia, a message posted on the former prime minister's Facebook page on Tuesday said that he is in Budapest, seeking political asylum from the authorities there.

"In the past few days I have received numerous threats on my life," said the message.

"I am in Budapest and I have requested political asylum from the authorities in Hungary," Gruevski wrote on Facebook on Tuesday. He added that in the past few days, he received death threats.

Police launched a wide search for former Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski after he failed to show up for three days to start serving his two-year jail sentence for the illicit purchase of a luxury limousine.

His party, the opposition VMRO-DPMNE, says that he is not with them.

Gruevski did not respond to serving a two-year prison sentence, which is why the police are now searching for him.

Gruevski was sentenced to two years in prison for abusing official position to illegally acquire an armored Mercedes.

By the order of the Criminal Court in Skopje, Macedonian police on Monday confirmed that they had issued an arrest warrant for former prime minister Nikola Gruevski who is to serve his two-year jail sentence.

This was issued after the Appeal Court last Friday rejected the former prime minister's appeal for a postponement of his sentence.

The criminal court of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), which is investigating allegations of unlawful political financing, has ordered a temporary freeze on the sale or lease of 69 properties owned by the main opposition VMRO-DPMNE, including its headquarters.

The right-wing VMRO DPMNE opposition party cannot sell or rent its lavish 'white palace' HQ in central Skopje, nor many of its other real-estate assets across the country, until the end of the major money-laundering case codenamed 'Talir', the Special Prosecution, SJO told BIRN on Thursday.

Skopje Criminal Court issued this ruling on Wednesday, the sources said.