Police internal review is initiating disciplinary procedures against a police officer and a superior officer at the Blace border crossing with Kosovo, for allowing former Deputy Prime Minister Artan Grubi to cross the border.

Grubi fled to Kosovo as criminal charges were being prepared against him for major corruption scandals. According to the Interior Ministry, at the time Grubi crossed the border on December 15th he was already placed on the “detain” list, but the officer allowed him through.

Grubi was driven in a vehicle by Arsim Papraniku, owner of the major appliances store Neptun, who is also honorary consul of Kosovo to Macedonia. Papraniku was questioned today. The officer who is being investigated listed Grubi as having crossed the border on foot, and he did not register Papraniku as passenger or his vehicle as having crossed the border.

The review determined that several officers at Blace had drained the batteries of their cameras, which are used to prevent precisely such cases of abuse.

Arrest warrants were issued after Grubi and his close associate Perparim Bajrami today. Bajrami was hjead of the State Lottery at a time when Grubi was intervening in the running of the company.