Last week, disinformation that was published by pro-government Serbian daily newspaper “Politika”, lied to a large part of the Albanian media who in turn, shared the news. “Politika”, citing its own sources, claimed that Nikola Gruevski flew to Budapest via Tirana.
One of the most well read media outlets in Albania, “Gazeta Mapo”, reported this information with additional “spice” – writing that the former Macedonian prime minister had disguised himself as a woman. However, this was not in the original article – in the article in the Serbian newspaper it claimed that Gruevski had boarded the plane wearing sunglasses and a hat and that nobody not even the airline crew recognized him. Additionally, “Gazeta Mapo”, stated that that the claim came from “Politika”.
However, Albanian police then released an official press statement, saying Gruevski had left Albania as a passenger in a vehicle belonging to the Embassy of Hungary in Tirana. Furthermore, police said that at the time an international arrest warrant for Gruevski had yet to be issued and was therefore missed, and the arrest warrant wasn’t sent from Skopje until November 13th.
Regarding his entry into Albania, according to the reputable Albanian TV “Top Channel”, Gruevski did not enter Albania legally, as there is no information about his entry in the country’s official TIMS system.
