Fugitive Macedonian Ex-PM 'Seeking Asylum in Hungary'

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 currently in Budapest and have asked for a political asylum from the Hungarian authorities. I will always stay true to the Macedonian cause. I will never step back," it added.

Macedonian police, who issued an arrest warrant for Gruevski on Monday after he failed to turn up at a prison to serve a two-year jail sentence, said that they are checking the authenticity of the message while continuing their search.

However, the search is only being carried out in Macedonia as police have not yet issued an international warrant for Gruevski's arrest.

Hungary was one of the places that was mentioned in speculation on social media as a possible country in which Gruevski could hide, as during his time as prime minister, he was seen as having particularly close relations to his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orban.

The last time that Orban visited Macedonia was in September 2017 to meet Gruevski, who was leader of the opposition VMRO DPMNE party at the time, at the start of a local election campaign which Gruevski's party lost.

Under Hungary's much criticised asylum law, an asylum application must be submitted exclusively in border transit zones, where applicants are detained until a final decision is made on their claim.

Gruevski was sentenced to two years in jail in the court case codenamed 'Tank', where he was found guilty of illegally soliciting the secret purchase of a 580,000-euro Mercedes in 2012 from...

Continue reading on: