Macedonian court orders passport of ex-prime minister seized

SKOPJE — A court in Macedonia has ordered that passports be seized from former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and four other officials in his conservative party, including two former cabinet ministers, in connection with a major wiretapping scandal.

The order was announced yesterday after Gruevski and the former ministers of the interior and transportation, Gordana Jankuloska and Mile Janakieski, were indicted for allegedly violating election campaign finance rules and related offenses in probe into illegal wiretapping.

In the scandal, the telephone conversations of about 20,000 people were illegally recorded. Gruevski denies wrongdoing and blames foreign spies. The scandal triggered a political crisis and an election last December that ended the 10-year rule of Gruevski's conservative VMRO-DPMNE party.

More than 100 people have been indicted so far in the wiretapping investigation.