Former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski is sentenced in absentia to seven years in prison

2022-04-21 18:20:42Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
Former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski is sentenced in absentia to seven years in
Nikola Gruevski

A Skopje court today sentenced former Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski to seven years in prison in absentia in a case in which he is accused of embezzling 1.3m euros from his ruling party, using the money to buy construction land.

In a case called "Plots on Water", Gruevski, who enjoys political asylum in Budapest, was sentenced in absentia to seven years in prison and a fine of 3,200 euros.

The trial lasted nine months and the court decided to confiscate the property created by the criminal offense.

Prosecutor Lile Stefanova accused Gruevski in the "Plots on Water" case of receiving 1.3m euros in VMRO / DPMNE donations and then buying property in Skopje and Krushevo.

The prosecutor said that the sentences for the former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and the former head of DSK, Sasho Mijalkov for the case "Plots on water" are low.

From October 2012 to September 2013, with the money that Gruevski appropriated from VMRO DPMNE, construction land was purchased in Vodno, while Kamchev, according to the Prosecution, was engaged in the resale of attractive plots in Vodno.

During the trial, it was revealed that Gruevski exchanged that land for three luxury apartments in the "Panorama" complex in Vodno, and two more apartments were discovered, another plot of land in Vodno and two plots in Krushevo.

Nikola Gruevski fled to Hungary in November 2018 to avoid serving a two-year prison sentence in a second trial and was immediately granted political asylum in Budapest.

Several other criminal proceedings are pending against him in Skopje.


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