Former prime minister and leader of the VMRO-DPMNE party, Nikola Gruevski, who was sentenced to two years in prison in the SPO’s “Tank” case, has confirmed on his Facebook profile that he has been granted asylum in Hungary.
“Today, the Republic of Hungary, an EU and NATO member country, responded positively to my previously submitted request for political asylum due to political persecution in the Republic of Macedonia. In my request for political asylum, I stated that I am claiming asylum because of political persecution by the new government led by the SDSM party. I stated that the government wants to deprive me of my freedom by using undemocratic steps and methods and abusing the judicial system as well as the prosecution system in Macedonia,” Gruevski writes on his Facebook profile.
He says that in his application for asylum he explained how it all began.
“With the beginning of the publication of the illegally acquired audio materials, the appointment of a special public prosecutor who became a party tool of the SDSM party, just like the court, I described all the injustices, irregularities, illegal working, discrimination, constructed trials and judgments, the specific court proceedings against me and the torture myself and many of my associates have suffered after the formation of the new government. I gave concrete examples and concrete evidence, ending with numerous threats to my life in the last few days before leaving the Republic of Macedonia. I have pointed out and provided concrete examples that in the Republic of Macedonia there are no conditions for a fair and legal trial, nor can the Government protect my life from numerous threats in an atmosphere of political smear by the government”, Gruevski says, adding that there is a partisan judiciary in Macedonia.
“In Macedonia I faced judges who, for each request in my defense, are awaiting instructions on how to rule from the government or the special public prosecutor, who the judges are themselves afraid of, and whom they see as a representative of the current government. The court and the prosecutor’s office has been turned into an instrument of political blackmail and compromise with political opponents, as well as covering the governments failures. The recent ‘revenge’ detentions of Mile Janakieski and Kiril Bozinovski, who were obviously detained for the government to reduce criticism after my departure from the country and political asylum for political persecution, with false, fabricated and non-existent evidence only confirm the atmosphere in the Republic of Macedonia today, “says Gruevski.
He adds that “in Macedonia he lives in conditions of government repression, discrimination, persecution, political arrests and full government control over the judicial and prosecution system, as well as removal and detention or imprisonment according to political circumstances and needs.”
“I have not escaped justice, but by using other internationally legally regulated methods, I continue to seek justice for myself and all other victims of political persecution in Macedonia. I, until the last moment, although I watched how unjustly they accused me and tried me, although it was visible that the judges knew the verdict before the trial started and before they looked at the evidence, faced justice like no-one on a daily basis, until the moment the current government has not decided unfairly and with a political decision to put me in prison and then assassinate me. I publicly stated that I am prepared to go to prison, only if Zaev abandons the devastating policies for Macedonia and the mistreatment of other people. However, he obviously wants everything. He wants to realize the sale of national interests, and to realize the plundering of the state, and to judge and condemn hundreds of my associates and to shut me up and assassinate me. I decided to fight and confront this coward who lazily deceives and steals from his people daily and abuses his state function that he came to dishonestly. Macedonia should become a member of NATO and the EU, but must not be allowed under the veil of this goal, the current undemocratic power fight with political opponents and to manufacture court cases and prison sentences in order to be carry on with crime unhindered, corruption and the sale of state and national interests,” says Gruevski.
