An international arrest warrant was issued after Saso Mijalkov, the former head of the powerful UBK secret service, who has been missing since yesterday evening.

The Skopje court informed that it received a request from the prosecutors for Mijalkov to be kept in house arrest at 15h, and dispatched it to the Interior Ministry. The house arrest was requested because Mijalkov is facing a sentencing in the major 2015 wiretapping case later this week. Around 14h Mijalkov was seen in the company of former Aerodrom Mayor Ivica Konevski in his Marriott hotel in downtown Skopje, and shortly after he left.

The court reached the decision by 18:30 and sent it to the Interior Ministry. The order provided that the house arrest is compounted with electronic and video surveillance. When the police moved to deliver and implement the order, Mijalkov was already gone from his home at Skopje’s elite Vodno district, which he listed as primary residence. His phone, which the police used to track his movements, was still there.