Bojan Jovanovski

North Macedonian law enforcement has placed the businessman Orce Kamcev in 30 days' detention in Shutka prison near Skopje, on the request of the Organised Crime Prosecution, which said there was a risk he might flee the country.

The prosecution on Sunday said it requested his detention after receiving "info from the National Security Agency that he might be preparing an escape".

In the ongoing court case that has gripped North Macedonia, codenamed Extortion, Prosecutor Ivana Trajceva on Tuesday presented messages that the main suspect, the showman-turned-businessman Bojan Jovanovski, sent to the Prime Minister, among other people, found in his seized electronic devices.

As the high-profile "Extortion" trial continued in North Macedonia on Wednesday, a witness recalled the furnishings obtained by the now-disgraced head of the Special Prosecution Office, SJO, Katica Janeva.

In a case that the local media in North Macedonia have already nicknamed "Extortion 2", the vice-president of parliament, Frosina Remenski, has been named as the third accused and charged with helping to commit fraud. She had previously insisted she was innocent.

North Macedonia's State Prosecution on Thursday laid charges against the country's former head special prosecutor on two grounds, for "taking a reward for illegal influence" and for "misuse in office".

A top official in the ruling Social Democratic Party and MP in North Macedonia, Frosina Remenski, has proclaimed her innocence following a hearing at the Skopje Criminal Court in connection with a new probe into the so-called "Extortion" case.

North Macedonia's State Prosecution is launching a new investigation linked to the "Extortion" case that has rocked the government and implicated a senior prosecutor. The new probe encompasses four new suspects including an unnamed politician.

The 'Extortion' scandal has rocked the government of Social Democrat Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and undermined the credibility of the country's anti-corruption drive.

It erupted in July when businessman Bojan Jovanovski and alleged accomplice Zoran Milevski were arrested on suspicion of extorting money from another businessman, Orce Kamcev.

The private national TV station 1TV ceased airing its signal on Wednesday, unofficially due to major financial problems that have piled up since its informal chief, Bojan Jovanovski, known by the stage name Boki 13, was arrested late in July.

The TV station's main entrance on Friday was padlocked and its frequency blank, although its web page stayed active.

The parliamentary commission in North Macedonia on appointments and dismissals at Thursday's closed session unanimously supported the dismissal of the suspended chief of the Special Prosecution, Katica Janeva, who has been detained in relation to the "Extortion" scandal. All 13 MP members of the commission voted for her dismissal.