• Monday, 08 July 2024

Justice Ministry to send new extradition requests for Nikola Gruevski, Afrim Ismailovic and Alil Demiri

Justice Ministry to send new extradition requests for Nikola Gruevski, Afrim Ismailovic and Alil Demiri
Skopje, 12 September 2022 (MIA) - Justice Ministry has announced that in the coming period it will send new extradition requests involving former prime minister Nikola Gruevski, who has been convicted and charged in relation to several cases while being granted an asylum status by Hungary. Extradition requests will be also send for Afrim Ismailovic and Alil Demiri, who had been sentenced to a life in prison involving the so called Monster case. In the meantime, they had fled to Kosovo. So far, one request for the extradition of Nikola Gruevski had been filed in November 2018 and an annex to the request in June 2019, said the Ministry on Monday. "Extradition was requested involving all cases we had knowledge of that proceedings had been launched in Macedonian courts, i.e. all proceedings for which an arrest warrant was issued. Hungary had dismissed the extradition request on August 5, 2019 stressing that Nikola Gruevski had been granted an asylum status and according to their laws, the person cannot be handed over to the country from which he fled. The situation involving all court proceedings is being closely monitored and the Justice Ministry will act accordingly and will file a new extradition request," said the Ministry in a statement. The country had requested extradition of Alil Demiri and Afrim Ismailovic from Kosovo on March 15, 2013. It was rejected by a court in Pristina in October 2015 before being upheld by the Kosovo Appellate Court in January 2016. Extradition request was again sent for both of them on September 5, 2018. On October 8, 2021, the Justice Ministry of Kosovo had said that the extradition request for Ismailovic was dismissed and there was no response for Demiri. All documents requested as part of the procedure had been sent to the Kosovo authorities, said the Justice Ministry. Kosovo had sent official responses refusing the extradite Ismailovic twice, in February 2016 and October 2021. Kosovo in February 2016 had sent an official response regarding Demiri. The Skopje Appellate Court upheld the first-instance verdict handed down in the Monster trial sentencing Alil Demiri and Afrim Ismailovic to a life in prison. "The Justice Ministry will again send extradition requests for both of them," it added.