A Greek court in Thessaloniki has approved the request by the Macedonian authorities for the extradition of two former Macedonian security agents accused by the Special Prosecution for the illegal interception and destruction of materials in the wiretapping scandal of telephone conversations.
Goran Grujevski and Nikola Boskovski managed to leave Macedonia a few months ago, as the court process ran. They were caught in mid-October at Thessaloniki airport with Bulgarian passports, with false names, trying to escape to Hungary.
Gruevski and Boskovski's lawyers have appealed to the Greek judicial authorities for the extradition decision.The lawsuit process, known as the "Castles", includes other accused, such as former secretary of intelligence Sasho Mijalkov and former interior minister Gordana Jankulovska.
The scandal was published three years ago by then-opposition leader Zoran Zaev, now prime minister of the country. According to him, more than twenty thousand citizens, mostly politicians, businessmen, journalists, etc. had been victims of illegal intelligence surveillance of Macedonia's intelligence service for years.
Based on this scandal, the Special Prosecution has opened a series of investigations and is conducting judicial proceedings against dozens of former representatives of the former Gruevski government, including the former prime minister and senior officials of the former Macedonian system.