Serbia Expected to Return Fugitive Macedonian

Former Macedonian customs chief Dragan Daravelski

Macedonian courts sentenced Daravelski to seven years in jail in absentia in 2007 for abuse of office and misappropriating millions of euros from state funds.

But like many other suspected or convicted criminals from the region, Daraveski used his dual Macedonian and Serbian citizenship to evade justice and hide in Belgrade where he has set up a new life.

“We have not been informed of any possible arrest of Daravelski in Serbia but that could happen soon and we are ready for the extradition procedure,” a source from the Macedonian Police Ministry told Balkan Insight.
 
In an interview this Monday, Serbia's ambassador to Macedonia, Tomislav Gjurin, announced that Serbia would soon extradite Daraveski to Macedonia.

The Macedonian and Serbian justice ministers, Blerim Bexheti and Snezana Malovic, signed the extradition treaty on Wednesday in Belgrade, at the sidelines of a regional conference dedicated to the fight against organized crime.

Marijana Ilijeva, the spokesperson for the Justice Ministry, told Balkan Insight that the signing of the deal “means that all people who used their dual citizenship to avoid justice for serious crimes will now be eligible for extradition”.

At the same conference in Belgrade, Macedonian Interior Minister Gordana Jankulovska and her Serbian counterpart Ivica Dacic signed a police cooperation treaty.

Another case concerns a former state trustee for several bankrupt companies, Vladislav Tamburkovski, sentenced in absentia in Macedonia for fraud. He is also out of the country, believed to be in Bulgaria or Serbia.

Another top official, a former health minister, Vlado Dimov, is believed to have fled to Turkey to avoid corruption charges.

In late October, Macedonia signed a similar extradition deal with Croatia and it previously did the same with Montenegro. Serbia, for its part, has also signed an extradition deal with Croatia.