Macedonia Bitter Over Bulgarian Decision to Free Rebel Priest

This is “not only a blow against the Macedonian Orthodox Church, but a serious blow against the Macedonian state”, Metropolitan Agatangel from Macedonia’s Povardarska diocese told Lisica news portal.

“With this decision, Bulgaria as an EU member is breaking its own principles and condemns us,” Agatangel said.

The Sofia Court of Appeals on Tuesday ruled that Vraniskovski should not be extradited to Macedonia, overturning an earlier decision by the Sofia District Court. Tuesday's ruling, which is final, allows the priest, who has been in home detention in Bulgaria since mid-November, to leave the country.

While refraining from commenting in detail on Bulgaria’s decision to release the renegade priest, Macedonian Justice Minister Mihajlo Manevski said his country had used all legal means to bring Vraniskovski back to Macedonia and to justice.
 
He said that the fact that the Court of Appeals overturned the previous decision of the Sofia District Court to extradite Vraniskovski shows that these two courts were not aligned.

Manevski added that the international warrant for Vraniskovski’s arrest remains open and that he could be arrested in any other country and extradited to Macedonia.

Vraniskovski, who is recognised as a bishop by the Serbian Orthodox Church, was arrested in Bulgaria last November on an international warrant issued by Interpol. Macedonian authorities requested his extradition after a local court in 2009 sentenced him to two-and-a-half years in prison for embezzling over €250,000 of church money while he was a cleric in Macedonia.

He has been the focus of a dispute between the Macedonian Orthodox Church and its more influential Serbian counterpart, which does not recognise the Macedonian Church's ecclesiastical independence.

The Serbian Church, which has close ties with other Orthodox churches, has blocked the recognition of the Macedonian Church by other Orthodox churches ever since it declared its "autocephaly", or independence, in the late 1960s.