Greece on Friday ordered the extradition of two Macedonian nationals wanted by Interpol over their alleged involvement in a wiretap scandal that brought down Macedonia’s government in 2015, the court officials said.
Political turmoil was triggered in 2015 when opposition parties accused then Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and his counter-intelligence chief of orchestrating the wiretapping of over 20,000 people.
The EU, which Macedonia aspires to join, brokered an agreement in which parties agreed to hold early elections and establish the office of a special prosecutor to investigate the content of the wiretaps.
The two Macedonians, aged 51 and 35, were accused by Macedonian authorities of destroying machines used in wiretapping.
They were arrested in October at an airport in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki carrying fake Bulgarian passports. (Reuters/NAN)