A court in Hungary refused to extradite the fugitive former prime minister of Macedonia, Nikola Gruevski.
According to local macedonian news portal a1on, the verdict was read out on Thursday morning in the presence of Nikola Gruevski, former premier of Macedonia.
The hearing was closed to the media, but the decision was publicly announced.
Macedonia had requested its former Prime Minister Gruevski’s extradition from Hungary in late 2018, to face justice in his home country.
Gruevski, who was sentenced to two years in prison over questionable corruption charges, had fled to Hungary and sought political asylum.
The former prime minister left Macedonia on Nov. 11 and arrived in Hungary through Albania, Montenegro and Serbia, with the help of Hungarian diplomatic staff in those countries writes a1on.
Gruevski is a long-standing leader of the conservative party VMRO-DPMNE and has served as a prime minister for nearly 10 years. He was widely accused by western media of authoritarian behavior and of fostering corruption.
He maintains that he is the victim of a political setup, and claimed that his assassination was planned in jail.
