No passport and banned from leaving the country, Iva Mihailova made it to Sofia - and the border "didn't notice"

Iva Mihailova (23) from Kočani, who is on trial over the car crash in which a 33-year-old man was killed, was supposed to report to a police station on Monday, as the court had ordered. Instead, she turned up in Bulgaria. Without a passport - both of them, Macedonian and Bulgarian, were taken from her back in October last year. Under a court ban on leaving the country. And, according to the Macedonian authorities, without any trace at the border: her departure was recorded by neither the Macedonian nor the Bulgarian border police.

Bulgarian broadcaster bTV reported that she crossed the border accompanied by Bulgarian lawyer Nikolay Dimitrov. Mihailova said she left because of her deteriorating health and that she did so with her personal documents. According to Bulgarian media, she has been admitted to Sofia's "Pirogov" hospital.

A detention order waiting to find her

The Kočani prosecutor's office concluded that she had breached her precautionary measures and requested detention due to the risk of flight. The Kočani Basic Court ordered 30 days of detention, which will begin as soon as she is found and brought in. The Interior Ministry issued a national and an international arrest warrant. Interior Minister Panche Toshkovski confirmed that Mihailova left the country illegally and said he hoped "our eastern neighbour" would respect international rules.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade summoned Bulgarian ambassador Zhelyazko Radukov. The ministry described the way Mihailova was welcomed in Sofia, including talk of her being received at a high level, as a provocation that undermines efforts towards good-neighbourly relations. "National affiliation or holding another citizenship must not serve as a basis for protection from accountability before the competent institutions," the ambassador was told. The ministry announced it will inform the institutions of the European Union and the Council of Europe.

The question that doesn't get sent to Brussels

The reaction towards Sofia has grounds: an EU member state where a high-level reception is announced for a defendant who fled her trial sends the message that one citizenship is worth more than another country's court. But before anyone writes to Brussels, there is a question that needs answering at home. How does a 23-year-old woman with no passport, under court-ordered measures, cross the state border without anyone noticing?

Lawyer Dimitrov claimed that officials "helped" them, while the police stayed tight-lipped on whether internal control is already investigating. Former interior minister Pavle Trajanov is blunt: responsibility for establishing how Mihailova left the country lies first and foremost with Macedonian institutions, and Bulgaria cannot be held responsible unless it is proven that its institutions took part.

The opposition immediately turned the case political. SDSM is demanding Toshkovski's resignation and asking whether something was agreed at Foreign Minister Timcho Mucunski's meetings in Sofia. The initiative "Conversations about the Future at 12:05" is demanding the resignations of three ministers - interior, foreign affairs and justice. VMRO-DPMNE points to the competent institutions.

The arrest warrant will go through its channels, and the extradition request, if it comes to that, through its own. But justice for the 33-year-old who was killed doesn't depend on Sofia alone. It also depends on whether anyone at home will answer for how a defendant without a passport crossed the border.