Jahi Jahija, the number three official in the Macedonian Ministry for Public Administration and Information Technology, was ordered into a 30 day detention following his arrest on corruption charges.

The high level DUI party official is charged with accepting paid trips and 40.000 EUR in bribes from a British company which applied for and now an EU IPA funded contract worth a million EUR. Jahija helped the company win the contract by providing it with confidential information about the bidding process. His arrest was initiated by European anti-fraud authorities, and a mid level manager who accepted the trips and a far small sum of money is also being charged.

It’s a rare arrest in the DUI party, which has enjoyed a status of protected property after starting the 2001 war and muscling in on the political scene in 2002. Jahija was heavily involved in the operations of the Ministry under the previous administration and now, under Minister Damjan Mancevski.