The Skopje Criminal Court ordered eight of the three dozen defendants in the major corruption scandal involving the state owned ELEM/ESM energy company into a month long detention. This group includes former ELEM director Vasko Stefanov, who is suspected of allowing hugely overpriced purchases of oil additives from Italy to the tune of 6.5 million EUR.

The remaining 23 defendants were ordered to undergo security measures that would prevent their flight. Another former ELEM director, Vasko Kovacevski, who like Stefanov was seen as a close ally of former Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, fled the country several months ago and is believed to be hiding in Vienna. Kovacevski even attempted to renounce his Macedonian citizenship, in an attempt to avoid extradition requests, but this is unlikely to help him much.

Several other former high level managers of ELEM and ELEM units are on the list of defendants, as are their close relatives. A company linked to one of the managers was set up to conduct the imports of additives, and the company leadership is suspected of knowingly allowing these corruption actions that syphoned money from the state owned company to go ahead.