Macedonia’s fugitive ex-prime minister to lose pay, benefits

SKOPJE, Macedonia – Former Macedonian prime minister Nikola Gruevski, who fled to Hungary to avoid serving a two-year sentence over a corruption scandal, will no longer receive his lawmaker’s salary.

A legislative amendment approved in parliament Wednesday stipulates that lawmakers lose their right to a salary and other benefits, such as travel expenses, if they are sentenced to more than six months in jail.

Gruevski, 48, the former leader of the conservative VMRO-DPMNE party and prime minister from 2006-2016, had continued to receive his lawmaker’s salary of more than 1,000 euros ($1,140) even after he fled Macedonia last November and gained political asylum in Hungary.

Macedonian authorities have issued an international warrant for Gruevski and have filed an extradition request to Hungarian authorities.