Thewesternbalkans.
The former First Deputy Prime Minister of North Macedonia Artan Grubi (48), who had been wanted for more than a year to stand trial for alleged abuses, was detained on Monday, February 23, at the Blace border crossing on the border with Kosovo, upon entering North Macedonia, MIA reported.
Grubi and former Director of the State Lottery Perparim Bajrami are being investigated on suspicion of embezzling 8 million euros from the State Lottery of North Macedonia.
The international arrest warrant for Grubi and Bajrami was issued in December 2024, but the former Deputy Prime Minister had already left for Kosovo.
Kosovo’s Radio and Television RTK reported that Artan Grubi surrendered to the authorities of North Macedonia voluntarily.
Grubi has been on the US blacklist since December 9, 2024, for “participating in significant corruption by accepting bribes to undermine judicial processes.”
He was the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the Political System and Inter-Community Relations of North Macedonia from 2020 to June 2024 as a representative of the Albanian Democratic Union for Integration (DUI).
Comment:
Who is Artan Grubi
He graduated in journalism in Skopje and received his doctorate from the University of Tirana, Albania. During the war in Kosovo, he collaborated with an American humanitarian mission, and then worked as an associate at the Hague Tribunal and the Dutch Embassy in Skopje.
This provided him with a springboard in politics and he rose to senior positions in DUI. Artan Grubi is one of the main players in DUI and is considered the right-hand man of leader Ali Ahmeti. According to the Macedonian media, he was a jack-of-all-trades in Macedonian politics, especially during the DUI coalition with SDSM. He was allowed everything and all scandals were forgiven.
There is no evil or abuse that Artan has not committed, the Macedonian media comment.
What is next?
What Grubi will be tried for is the case of the State Lottery, which during his rule was transformed into a subcontractor of the DUI.
The ruling VMRO party and the Minister of Justice criticized the lenient measure against Grubi – house arrest. The prosecution’s justification was that his safety could not be guaranteed in prison, although the prison management announced that it was able to guarantee the safety of all prisoners.
However, Artan Grubi is not an ordinary defendant. His return could mean the beginning of the end of the DUI and its leader Ali Ahmeti. The arbitrary return of Grubi, who surrendered to the authorities with a smile and settled peacefully at his home in the elite, predominantly Albanian, Chaira district of Skopje, suggests the existence of a prior agreement. In the traditions of the Macedonian political scene, and especially behind the scenes, this means that the public will learn very little about the dark sides of the political functioning of the state.
Photo: Wikipedia
