Gruevski talks about escape: They Planed to Kill Me in Prison

In the first interview since he left the state, Gruevski told Macedonian television Sitel on February 2nd that he had originally intended to go to jail to serve his sentence, despite the sentence he handed down against him called “without legal basis”.

But... I accepted information that someone was planning to liquidate me in prison. Therefore, I changed my” decision, Gruevski said.

Gruevski said he has received information “from people inside the prison who have been well informed” that an assassination was planned against him.

I can't publicly tell who's behind this conspiracy because I couldn't offer proof of it at that moment. Therefore, I decided to leave Macedonia”, he said.

Gruevski has even earlier claimed to have accepted death threats in Macedonia, an indictment for which Prime Minister Zoran Zaev's government has voiced scepticism, rejecting that former Prime Minister Gruevski has been the victim of political prosecution.

Nikola Gruevski, who has strong ties to Hungarian Ottoman Prime Minister Viktor Orban, left for Budapest in November 2018 after being sentenced in Macedonia to corruption for two years in prison. Official Budapest gave asylum to Gruevski, for what he described as “political persecution” in Macedonia.

Gruevski said he has chosen the state of Hungary because he is a member of NATO and the European Union and according to him is a state “with independent institutions”.

Nikola Gruevski has served in the post of prime minister from 2006 to 2016. He was sentenced to two years in prison in May 2018 for using a car worth 600 thousand euros for personal needs.

Official Skopje, which has issued an international warrant for Gruevski, charges him with yet another series of corruption-related acts. (REL)