Skopje, 11 January 2025 (MIA) — In response to public outcry following reports of former Administration for Security and Counterintelligence director Sasho Mijalkov vacationing in Monte Carlo, the Public Prosecutor's Office issued a press release saying it had never approved of Mijalkov's parole in the first place.

"Due to the public interest in the conditional release of the convict Sasho Mijalkov and his right to leave the country, the Public Prosecutor's Office is making it clear that it has never given a positive opinion and has not agreed to the convict's being paroled," the PPO press release said.

Prosecutors, in fact, appealed the court ruling on his parole, they said.

However, the appeal was rejected because "in the meantime, with amendments to the Law on the Execution of Sanctions published in the Official Gazette on April 2, 2024, the provision under which the ruling on conditional release needed to be submitted to the public prosecutor was deleted from Article 254, and Article 256 practically eliminated the possibility for the public prosecutor to appeal the ruling on conditional release," the PPO wrote. 

"This means that the public prosecutor neither was notified of these amendments nor had the opportunity to appeal the conditional release." 

The PPO added that after the May 2024 court ruling for his conditional release, it was the court's duty to supervise Mijalkov while on parole. mr/