Macedonia: Top Suspect in Mavrovo Case Dies

The State Administration for Enforcing Sanctions told media that Rushiti most probably committed suicide as the forensic autopsy showed he died of strangling from bed sheets. No signs of violence were present at the scene, the officials said.

The prison guards found Rushiti in his prison cell on Saturday afternoon, at which point he still showed signs of life, and rushed him to hospital. He died shortly thereafter.

Rushiti was scheduled to appear in court on June 2 to face charges of abusing several construction workers in one of Macedonia's most controversial court cases.

He was among 22 people charged for committing torture against several construction workers during the country's 2001 armed conflict between ethnic Albanian insurgents, part of the now disbanded National Liberation Army, NLA, and the state security forces.

According to the prosecution, the atrocities took place when a group of former insurgents captured workers of the construction company Mavrovo who were working on the highway between the capital Skopje and the northwestern town of Tetovo.

At the time of his death, Rushiti was serving a 15 year sentence for several other non-related crimes including abduction, murder and hostage taking. He served his sentence in Idrizovo and had been alone in his prison cell since 2004, authorities said.

In 2002 the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY, took over jurisdiction of five cases from Macedonia, all related to the previous year's conflict, including the Mavrovo Workers case.

However, the Hague prosecution pressed charges only in the case against the former Macedonian Interior Minister Ljube Boskoski and one of his senior police officers. The ICTY delivered its second instance verdict last week. While Boskoski was acquitted on all charges, his subordinate Johan Tarculovski was sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment.

The other four cases, all involving suspected members of the NLA, were returned to Macedonia’s judiciary and the prosecutor’s office said it would press charges.

However, nearly all ethnic Albanian parties in the country are unanimous in claiming that the cases should be dropped as they should be subject to the amnesty law that granted amnesty to all former NLA members following the conflict.

Ethnic Albanian politicians and some experts have warned that with the reopening of these cases Macedonia risks reviving past inter-ethnic tensions.