North Macedonia's interior ministry has issued international arrest warrants for former deputy prime minister Artan Grubi and the director of the State Lottery, Perparim Bajrami, who are accused of embezzling some 8 million euros from the State Lottery, reports BGNES.
The Interior Ministry's decision was taken at the request of the Prosecutor's Office for a 30-day arrest of the two, who are currently out of the country.
The prosecutor's office is also investigating allegations against former Prime Minister Dimitar Kovatchevski, but it is not yet clear whether the same corruption scandal is involved. So far, no formal charges have been filed.
Kovacevski's party, the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia /SDSM/, claims that the probe concerns a different period and a different case from that of Grubi and Bajrami. The SDSM called the actions of the VMRO-DPMNE government and Christian Mitkoski "political revanchism".
The investigation also involves other suspects for abuse of office, bribe-taking and misuse of public contracts, including former Secretary General of the Kovacevski cabinet, Metodija Dimovski.
The Ministry of Interior filed criminal cases against a total of eight people for various crimes.
BGNES recalls that Artan Grubi and Court of Appeals Judge Enver Bedjeti were sanctioned by the US for "significant corruption".
The State Department said that Grubi and Bedjeti accepted bribes to undermine legal proceedings related to the criminal conviction of Sasho Miyalkov, former director of Macedonia's Security and Counterintelligence Directorate (DBC). Grubi was deputy prime minister in the government of Dimitar Kovacevski. | BGNES
