N. Macedonia ex-PM gets seven-year jail sentence

N. Macedonia ex-PM gets seven-year jail sentence

N. Macedonia ex-PM gets seven-year jail sentence

N. Macedonia ex-PM gets seven-year jail sentence

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A neighborhood courtroom sentenced North Macedonia’s fugitive former high minister Nikola Gruevski to seven years in jail Thursday for embezzling 1.3 million euros of his personal party’s price range.

It was the 3rd  prison sentence for Gruevski, who in 2018 fled the country  In a bid to get away from the first one.

The former strongman near Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who granted him political asylum, now lives in Budapest.

Gruevski’s over-a-decade-long authoritarian rule ended in 2016 after a huge wiretapping scandal.

He was later handed one jail sentence of two years and another of 18 months for abuse of power and inciting violence respectively.

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The prosecutors built their cases based on the wiretaps released in 2015 by the Social Democrats who at that time were in opposition.

The tribunal ruled Thursday that Gruevski laundered 1.3 million euros ($1.4 million), gathered as party membership fees and donations, through different offshore and local companies and eventually used the money to secretly buy prime land and apartments in Skopje.

The court ordered the confiscation of property that Gruevski had bought in the names of other individuals or companies.

The case is a typical “white collar crime”, judge Ilija Trpkov said adding the sentence sends a message that justice would be implemented equally.

Four other defendants were tried alongside Gruevski, of whom two were sentenced to jail terms.

They include former counterintelligence chief Saso Mijalkov, who is also Gruevski’s cousin. He was sentenced to 15 months in jail.

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Earlier this month the United States black-listed Gruevski for “corruption” and Mijalkov for “undermining democratic institutions”.

Gruevski still faces prices in different instances, which include accusations he organized the 2017 attack on the Balkan country’s parliament.

The former top minister said he had fled to Hungary after receiving a danger that he would be killed in prison.

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