A Skopje court rejected a request from special prosecutors for the detention of ex-prime minister Nikola Gruevski for his alleged involvement in an election fraud case on July 3, but ordered his passport to be seized.

The move was expected as the court so far has rejected all detention requests from the Special Prosecution Office (SPO) for officials involved in various cases filed on June 29.

On July 2, Saso Mijalkov, Macedonia’s ex-secret police chief and Gruevski’s cousin, also avoided detention after being charged with ordering illegal eavesdropping and destruction of wiretapping equipment. Detention requests were also turned down for ex-transport minister Mile Janakieski and former interior minister Gordana Jankulovska, charged in the Titanik election fraud case. 

The requests are rejected as unfounded, the court said in a statement.

However, the court ordered the passports of defendants including Gruevski, Janakieski and Jankulovska to be taken temporarily, and for a ban on issuing new traveling documents to them.

Precautionary measures were also ordered against the defendants, and they have to appear before a court official once a week. Appeals can be filed within three days.

Gruevski is one of the suspects in the Titanic case, which has seen charges brought for criminal association and election bribery. If found guilty, the defendants could receive prison terms of up to three years.

Indictments were recently filed against Gruevski is in two other cases, Tank and TNT. The TNT investigation relates to the demolition of a €58mn residential complex in Skopje which was owned by Gruevski’s political rival, while Tank concerns the purchase of a Mercedes worth over half a million euros for Gruevski using state funds. 

Charges are being pressed against Gruevski for criminal association, misuse of funds for financing an election campaign, violation of the right to vote, abuse of official position and receiving benefits from unlawful influence.

He was among 94 people, including former senior officials, charged by the SPO in connection with criminal and corruption activities revealed by the wiretapping scandal that prompted early elections and brought down the conservative VMRO-DPMNE government, led by Gruevski.

After the latest indictments, VMRO-DPMNE immediately reacted to the news in a statement, in which Gruevski said that the party “is being attacked as never before”.

“Hundreds of people who are part of VMRO-DPMNE's structures or supporters are being prosecuted in order for the party to be destroyed or silenced,” Gruevski said in the statement. For him, this is a political, not legal process. At the end Gruevski said, “They will not succeed.”

So far, the court has rejected all the requests filed by the SPO last week in a total of 17 cases, but ordered the seizure of passports of several former officials.

The SPO received a similar setback when it launched its first probe, Titanik, as the prosecutors’ request for eight people including two former ministers to be detained was dismissed by a Skopje court.

The SPO was established on September 15, 2015 as part of the EU- and US-brokered Przino Agreement aimed at ending the political crisis in Macedonia, but has actually been functioning for only 10 months.

The latest indictments were filed one day before the expiry of the deadline for such action on June 30. The parliament can now vote to extend the deadline, which will open the way for new indictments. However,  this will be only possible with the support of the now opposition VMRO-DPMNE, which is against such move.