Sašo Mijalkov

After three months in hiding, Greek police have arrested two former FYROM secret policemen, Goran Grujevski and Nikola Boskoski, wanted in Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) for their alleged involvement in the country’s illegal wiretapping scandal.

The two men were arrested in Thessaloniki, northern Greece, on Wednesday under a warrant issued by FYROM.

Macedonia's former ruling VMRO DPMNE party has removed several indicted former ministers and senior officials from its executive committee - although with ousted PM Nikola Gruevski still leading the party, the changes appear more cosmetic than substantial, observers say.

The Special Prosecution, SJO on Thursday announced charges in 17 cases, demanding the arrest of former premier Nikola Gruevski, former Interior Minister Gordana Jankuloska, former Transport Minister Mile Janakieski, former government secretary-general Kiril Bozinovski and Gruevski's former cabinet chief Martin Protugjer.

The Special Prosecution, SJO on Tuesday said it has launched an investigation codenamed 'Tank' over suspicions that two former government officials, who it did not name, were involved in an illicit deal to secretly buy a luxury Mercedes limousine for then-PM Gruevski in 2012.

According to the Special Prosecution, SJO, the police officers standing trial attempted to cover-up their department's involvement in illegally listening in on thousands of conversations between politicians, activists, journalists and their associates.

Macedonia's Special Prosecution, SJO, said it suspected ten persons from the Security and Counterintelligence Directorate, UBK, illegally surveyed at least 5,827 telephone numbers from 2008 to 2015 - as part of a fresh investigation codenamed "Target," launched on Friday.

Macedonia's Helsinki Committee for Human Rights has condemned fresh attacks on the work of the Special Prosecution office, SJO, calling it absurd for the same judicial institutions that have been pinpointed for years in international reports as problematic to target the work of the SJO.

All 29 men accused of being part of or helping the armed group that clashed with police in ethnically-mixed Kumanovo in May this year told the Skopje court on Monday that they were not terrorists.

The ethnic Albanian suspects denied the charges and said the bloody two-day shootout was a result of them defending themselves from the police.

Skopje airport authorities have launched an investigation to determine how the former secret police chief, Sasho Mijalkov, passed through airport security and boarded a plane to Belgrade with a pistol. 

In the operation launched on Thursday morning in villages close to the Kosovo border, police arrested at least five people suspected of providing logistical help to the armed ethnic Albanian group that fought a bloody battle with security forces in Kumanovo in northern Macedonia in May.