Macedonia Closer to Allowing Extradition

Macedonia is a step closer to allowing extradition of citizens wanted for crimes abroad after parliament on Tuesday backed government-backed constitutional changes.

The Justice Ministry hopes Macedonia will shortly sign bilateral agreements with other countries so that it can get hold of Macedonian nationals who have evaded extradition by holding double citizenship.

In giving the green light to the constitutional changes, parliament tasked the centre-right government with developing draft amendments that will be submitted for adoption.
 
"We are already mulling extradition agreements with Serbia, Croatia and Montenegro [and] after making these constitutional changes we will be able to sign them," Mirjana Ilieva, Justice Ministry spokesperson, told Balkan Insight.

In recent years, several high-profile Macedonian citizens holding dual citizenship have fled the country in order to avoid prosecution at home.

The most recent case concerned a renegade Macedonian priest, Jovan Vraniskovski, who is wanted in Macedonia to his serve a jail sentence for financial crime.
 
Vraniskovski was detained in Bulgaria in December but this months courts there ordered his release because he also held Serbian citizenship.

In another case, Serbia is refusing to extradite Macedonia's former chief of customs, Dragan Daravelski, who is wanted in Macedonia on embezzlement charges.

A former state trustee for several bankrupt companies, Vladislav Tamburkovski, jailed in absentia in Macedonia for fraud, is also out of the country, believed to be hiding in Bulgaria or Serbia.

Former health minister Vlado Dimov is believed to have fled to Turkey to avoid corruption charges.