US Urges Macedonia to Probe Wiretap Claims

US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Hoyt Yee said during a visit to Skopje on Friday that the government should take the allegations at least as seriously as it does the criminal charges against the man who released the wiretap recordings, opposition leader Zoran Zaev.

"These issues demand answers and they demand accountability," Yee told media after meeting Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski.

"We have urged the government and its institutions to take the allegations, the insinuations of a malfeasance, of possible illegal behaviour very seriously. At least as seriously as the government is taking the charges against Mr. Zaev, the leader of the opposition," the US diplomat added. 

Social Democrats leader Zaev started releasing the tapes of government officials' conversations in February, claiming that Gruevski orchestrated the illegal surveillance of some 20,000 people.

After being charged with the attempted blackmail of the country's leaders and accused of soliciting bribes, Zaev was also recently charged with revealing state secrets after he aired tapes that suggested secret police chief Saso Mijalkov took a cut from a police procurement.

While Zaev must appear regularly at court hearings, there is no sign that the numerous allegations of crimes by government officials contained in the tapes are being probed.

"One important aspect of this crisis that we talked about is the information that has come to light, that has been revealed through the recordings that have been released, information that is about possible official corruption, about possible inappropriate government influence over the media and over the judiciary and possible electoral abuses and other abuses of power," Yee said.

He called on Gruevski's...