English
Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski discussed the recent arrest of Zaev’s former First Deputy Prime Minister Artan Grubi, who returned to Macedonia after fleeing justice to Kosovo, and was ordered into house arrest. Mickoski was responding to SDSM members of Parliament who insisted that the house arrest – requested by the prosecutors instead of the usual prison detention – is a sign that there is some kind of an arrangement between Grubi and the current Government.
The fugitive has been secured by the law enforcement. Now the issue is up to the judiciary, not the Government. But the opposition is concerned whether the allegations against Grubi can go beyond the working of the State Lottery and into other areas, such as healthcare. I understand the public, and I know that they are angry. I can’t allow myself to be angry at this decision. But the process itself will provide all the answers. Big things are being done in silence. March is almost here, and there are no migrants, as SDSM claimed. We are not bankrupt, as they hysterically insisted – instead we have the lowest bond interest rates in the region, even lower than some EU member staets. The time is not working for the opposition. I have no reason to enter into any kind of deals with a person like Artan Grubi. Remember his attacks on me, how many times I and my family were personally attacked by Artan Grubi and the SDSM led Government. There is no logic that I would now make deals with people who worked for my political, and even personal demise, said the Prime Minister in the Parliament.
In a subsequent TV interview he said that the Interior Ministry and the ANB security agency have classified reports about the alleged threats that Grubi could have faced in prison, which was the reason the prosecutors and the court used to allow him into house arrest.