Yesterday the court gave him back his passport. Today he is out of the country.

Businessman Borče Markovski, owner of Markovski Kompani and honorary consul of Belarus, was stopped at the Tabanovce border crossing - but because the system held no active measure barring him from leaving the country, he continued on into Serbia. Where he has property.

The Basic Court in Struga had returned the passport a day earlier. Court president Judge Vulnet Vinča explains why: „The passport was returned because a bond of over five million euros was posted. Under the law, you cannot have both a property bond and a confiscated passport - it is one or the other.”

Legally, that is a clean sentence. In practice it means a man charged with abuse in a 1.7-million-euro public procurement - a man the prosecution had previously argued was a flight risk precisely because of his business in Serbia - crossed the border within 24 hours with perfectly valid documents.

A judicial history that doesn't fade easily

This is not the first time the Markovski case has collided awkwardly with the Macedonian judiciary. The Judicial Council previously found that a „desired” criminal panel had been assembled at the Basic Court in Bitola to release him from detention. After that, all 11 judges of the Bitola court recused themselves in April, and the case was moved to Struga.

The indictment concerns the transfer of plant equipment from the Oslomej mine to the Bitola thermal power complex. According to prosecutors, in 2023 the tender was tailored so that Markovski's company would be the only bidder, and the transport system it offered was not suitable for the mine. Reports were then signed stating the equipment had been installed - while, according to the indictment, the material was still lying scattered on site. Eight other people are charged, among them five employees of the Bitola plant and former director Pece Matevski.

Through international legal assistance, 1.2 million euros, 1,000 Swiss francs, precious coins and a gold bar were seized from a safe deposit box in a Belgrade bank, along with ten freight vehicles registered to a Serbian company.

Who answers when the system „has no measure”?

The interior ministry says police act only on active court decisions entered into the system. The court says it acted according to the law. The prosecution was unofficially against returning the passport. Everyone has their sentence, nobody has responsibility.

The next hearing is set for 2 September. The defendant is in Serbia. The five-million-euro bond is now the only thing tying him to this country - and for a man with a safe deposit box in Belgrade, that may well count as an acceptable price.