Dragan Daravelski, former head of the Macedonian Customs, was released from detention today. He will go through a retrial in the old corruption allegations case worth 2.5 million EUR, which prompted him to escape to Serbia, where he evaded extradition since 2002.

Daravelski, son of former Parliament Speaker Tomislav Stojanovski and former high level VMRO-DPMNE official from the days of Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski, unexpectedly returned to Macedonia several weeks ago, just as the case against him was reaching the statute of limitations. He was sentenced to seven years in prison, as part of the massive purge of VMRO officials from Georgievski’s Government in 2002, carried out by the SDSM led Government of Branko Crvenkovski. Daravelski was sentenced in absentia in 2007.

Following his unexpected return to Macedonia, it was widely speculated that Daravelski was privately assured before his return that the case with be thrown out, and that he wanted to return because of family reasons.