Macedonia’s fugitive former prime minister Nikola Gruevski said he has been granted political asylum in Hungary, a week after he fled his country to avoid serving a two-year jail sentence for a corruption conviction, according to multiple reports.
Nikola Gruevski, prime minister from 2006 to 2016, is considered a close ally of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, although the government has insisted that the asylum request is purely a legal matter, not a political one.
In a Facebook post, Gruevski said he was a victim of political persecution by Macedonia’s current Social Democrat government. “The courts and the prosecutor’s office have been turned into an instrument of political blackmail and calculated (attacks) against political opponents,” he wrote. “Today in Macedonia, there are conditions of government repression, discrimination, persecution, politically-motivated arrests and full control by the government.”
Authorities in Hungary did not immediately confirm he was granted asylum.
According to a report by Hungarian new site Index.hu, the Macedonian government submitted an extradition request on Tuesday afternoon. The Ministry of Justice said that the request noted that Gruevski is facing trial in at least three other corruption cases, including charges that stem from a major wiretapping scandal. The extradition request, the ministry said, also noted the “serious nature of the crimes” in question.
Lawmaker Ádám Mirkóczki, of the nationalist Jobbik party, convened a special session of Parliament’s national security committee, claiming Hungary’s immigration officials misled lawmakers about the Gruevski case. Other opposition parties said the Orbán government was siding with a “criminal”, and accused authorities of breaking Hungarian and international laws during the asylum procedure. Timea Szabó, a lawmaker with the “Párbeszéd” party, said it would seek legal options to ensure that Gruevski does not stay in Hungary.
Macedonia has been wracked by political crisis for more than three years, marked by a bitter rivalry between Gruevski and current Prime Minister Zoran Zaev. Western leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, traveled to Macedonia to express support for Zaev and the agreement with Greece before a September 30 referendum of the country’s name change. Voters overwhelmingly backed the proposal, although the process was marred by a low turnout.