Nikola Gruevski

Zaev's ascent to power can be traced to his starring role in lifting the lid on the corruption, meddling and abuse of power that had become widespread in Gruevski's regime, when the Social Democrat leader began feeding intelligence service wiretaps to the media in a series of sensational press conferences in 2015.

North Macedonia's Organised Crime Prosecution on Wednesday filed charges against the country's fugitive former prime minister, Nikola Gruevski, and some of his former close associates, in a high-profile case linked to the illicit purchase of building sites.

The Criminal Court in Skopje found Saso Mijalkov guilty in a first-instance verdict on Tuesday of abuse of office and authority for the illicit purchase of surveillance equipment under the former authoritarian regime led by the secret police chief's cousin, Nikola Gruevski.

The Interior Ministry said on Tuesday that at least nine police officers have been arrested so far on suspicion of being part of a group that issued false passports and identity documents to foreign citizens.

"The operation is ongoing and we will have more info once it wraps up, later today or tomorrow," a high-ranking official in the Interior Ministry told BIRN.

Recently-detained business magnate Orce Kamcev has long been the focus of controversy in North Macedonia, where he had close connections to the authoritarian government of former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski.

Tobias Zech, a legislator from the centre-right Christian Social Union, CSU, the ruling party in Bavaria and sister party to Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU, has quit after Germany's Spiegel revealed that he lobbied for Nikola Gruevski's ousted authoritarian regime in North Macedonia in 2016.

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 a first-instance verdict, the Skopje Criminal Court on Friday found the former head of the secret police, Saso Mijalkov, guilty on all three accounts, of criminal association, abuse of office and receiving a reward for illegal influence, handing him a jail sentence of 12 years.

Authorities in North Macedonia confirmed on Monday that they have issued a national arrest warrant for former secret police chief Saso Mijalkov, after police fruitlessly tried to find him at several locations in the capital, Skopje, on Sunday evening, to escort him to house detention on court orders. The authorities are expected to issue an international arrest warrant as well.

The heads of the diplomatic missions of EU Member States in the Republic of North Macedonia, led by EU Ambassador David Gere, at their regular annual meeting with Prime Minister Zoran Zaev showed particular interest in resolving open issues with the Republic of Bulgaria, which resulted in no consensus on the negotiating framework for North Macedonia in Brussels, reports the "Sloboden Pecat", qu