He was handcuffed yesterday/ Artan Grubi under house arrest

2026-02-24 10:50:28, Kosova & Bota CNA

The Public Prosecutor's Office in North Macedonia proposed on the evening of February 23 that former Deputy Prime Minister Artan Grubi be placed under house arrest, after he was arrested by Macedonian authorities on the same day.

He was arrested at the Blace border crossing, between North Macedonia and Kosovo.

Grubi is suspected of abuse of official duty in the case known as the "State Lottery", a case that Radio Free Europe has previously reported on.

This case also includes Përparim Bajrami, who is also mentioned in the indictment as a suspect.

Prosecutors suspect that they have embezzled around 8 million euros through the procurement of electronic lottery terminal (VLT) equipment.

The prosecution has justified the request for house arrest, saying that most of the data is already secured, due to the fact that Grubi has voluntarily surrendered to state law enforcement agencies, and there are signals that "his personal safety cannot be guaranteed in a detention center."

The Basic Criminal Court in Skopje has announced that the pre-trial judge has accepted the proposal for house arrest. He will be under 24-hour surveillance by officials from the Ministry of Interior.

Grubi was arrested after more than a year of being on the run.

Authorities have said he is in good health and has been questioned by the Public Prosecutor's Office.

The prosecution had requested the detention of Grubi and Bajrami, arguing that there is a well-founded suspicion that the actions of both were aimed at illegal material gain.

On December 17 of last year, the Criminal Prosecution requested 30 days of detention for Grubi and Bajram, and on the same day, Macedonian authorities issued international arrest warrants for both figures.

Artan Grubi had said in a Facebook post that he was not fleeing but was on a private visit to Kosovo and would return home.

The day after that statement, police searched two locations but did not find him.

Less than a month before resigning as state prosecutor, Lupce Kocevski said that the investigation into the State Lottery case has now been completed and only extradition is expected. His flight has been an obstacle to the start of the trial.

Unlike Grubi, who during his period of escape was suspected of hiding in Kosovo or Albania, Bajrami's lawyer has previously said that his client did not flee, but lived outside North Macedonia for several months before his house was raided.

Macedonian Prime Minister Hristjan Mickoski said at the time that Grubi "together with another person, a businessman, left [North] Macedonia in a car with diplomatic plates and headed towards the neighboring country of Kosovo" and that Bajrami, according to him, had not been inside Macedonian territory for a long time.

Grubi was blacklisted by the US State Department on December 9, allegedly for involvement in corruption, political interference and attempts to mislead the judiciary.

The justification for inclusion on this list was because they received bribes to influence court proceedings related to the criminal conviction of the former director of the Security and Counterintelligence Administration (DSK), Sasho Mijalkov, in the "Target" case opened by the Special Public Prosecutor's Office (SPP), which concerned mass wiretapping.

Grubi was a member of the opposition Democratic Union for Integration (DUI), once an MP and deputy prime minister in the previous SDSM and DUI government./REL