The audio tape, purportedly of the SDSM party Mayor Kurto Dudus beating and torturing a man who disparaged him, shocked the public and prompted calls for accountability, even from usually reliable SDSM party supporters.

This is a scandal. If there is no response to this, as to other things, then Prime Minister Zaev, you’re entering dangerous waters and the bottom is closing in, wrote journalist Sead Rizvanovik, from the pro-SDSM TV24 television.

The audio tape was published by the Lider news site. In it, a man’s voice is heard locking a man in an office, berating him and then slaps and blows are heard. The man, believed to be Kurto Dudus, the Mayor of Shuto Orizari and Zaev’s main ally in the Roma community, at one point threatens the man with a baseball bat. Even more worryingly, the tells the man that he will get the police to intimidate him.