The department of prisons and the Skopje court are in dispute over the status of former security chief Saso Mijalkov, who is supposed to be serving out a sentence in the Struga prison.

The Skopje court requested Mijalkov to appear for a hearing in one of the numerous remaining cases initiated against him,  but the prison did not fulfill the request – this raised questions about whether Mijalkov is even staying at the open style prison in Struga. The prison management insists that the request sent by the Skopje court had a mistaken date – it was marked December 12th, when it should have been December 14th.

The court disputes this claim and insists that they sent out a correct request.

Mijalkov famously fled the country before he was supposed to begin serving out the sentence, but returned under international pressure. The SDSM led regime insists that they are continuing to crack down hard on former VMRO-DPMNE officials like Mijalkov, but are also widely seen as making various business and political deals with him.