Judge Zoran Teofilovski, the recently appointed member of the Judicial Council who is charged with defrauding the budget of roughly a million euros, is in hiding from the police.

The charges were announced earlier today. The judge and seven municipal officials from Tetovo are suspected of allowing a sports club the judge was presiding over purchase more than 4.400 square meters of publicly owned land for under 4.000 EUR. The market value is estimated by state prosecutors at a million euros.

The court approved the house arrest request against the judge, but the police has not been able to locate him throughout the day. Other defendants were also ordered into house arrest, or to report to the court weekly, as the case goes to trial.