Skopje, 23 August 2024 (MIA) - Prime Minister Hrisitjan Mickoski urged on Friday the Public Prosecutor’s Office to investigate SDSM’s claims that the escape of former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) member Blerim Ramadani from house arrest was aided by employees of state institutions.  

“I encourage the Public Prosecutor’s Office to launch an investigation as early as today, I urge the Public Prosecutor, who was chosen by SDS[M] and DUI to immediately investigate the situation. And I guarantee you that the claims made by the SDSM MP are an obvious lie,” Mickoski told journalists.

He also urged the leadership of the Interior Ministry to sue the opposition party for slander.

“We must protect ourselves from such lies and constructions in this way. It’s strange that such monstrous affairs are constructed, and this practically shows us what kind of people we’ve had to deal with during these seven years since they’re creating this while in the opposition. This practically shows they ruled like that, they functioned like that,” Mickoski said.

SDSM MP Mitko Trajchuleski said Thursday the party has evidence from “whistleblowers” that the escape of former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) Blerim Ramadani from house arrest was aided by the police, and urged the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office to launch an investigation.

At a press conference, the SDSM MP alleged that Ramadani left the country and traveled to Kosovo on August 10 with Naim Ramuka, the police chief of the northern border with Kosovo, while on August 14, when he escaped from the country, he was transported by a senior employee of the Municipality of Chair, upon Ramuka’s orders. In both cases, Trajchuleski said, they crossed the border using the lane for freight vehicles without any controls.

Trajchuleski called for the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office to launch an urgent investigation into the case; for the recordings from the cameras at the border crossing to be declassified; and for Interior Minister Panche Toshkovski, as well as everyone else involved in the organization of the escape, to resign.

Kosovo national Ramadani, was arrested on July 17 at the Kosovo-Macedonian border after an Interpol warrant was issued on Serbia’s request. Afterwards, he was placed in 30-day extradition detention in a Skopje jail. On August 1, Ramadani’s detention was replaced with house arrest valid until August 16. However, he escaped house arrest on August 15.

Ramadani’s arrest warrant is based on Serbia’s claims that Ramadani, as former KLA member, had committed war crimes in the region of Nerodime. 

Photo: MIA