A man charged over public procurement abuses worth 1.7 million euros crossed the state border on 29 July and nobody stopped him. Not because the system glitched, but because the system had already handed his passport back through its own institutions. Now the prime minister says this „will not end this way“ and announces an investigation - but won't say into whom.

Speaking during a visit to Bitola, Hristijan Mickoski said the whole process around returning businessman Borče Markovski's travel document involved „gross manipulation by one local public prosecutor at the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office“ and that this prosecutor is „an accomplice in this process“. An accomplice. That is a heavy word in a prime minister's mouth, aimed at someone who is neither charged nor named.

„If I wanted to give a first and last name, I would give a first and last name, I wouldn't want to speculate with names“, Mickoski said. And there is the heart of it: if you have enough to call someone an accomplice in a criminal case, you have enough to file a complaint. If you don't, then you don't have enough for that label in front of cameras either.

The timeline that explains the whole story

Markovski was arrested in October 2025 and released from custody in January 2026 on property bail worth 303,879,265 denars - roughly 4.9 million euros. On 15 June this year, the competent prosecutor at the Basic Public Prosecutor's Office in Struga gave a negative opinion on the defence's request to return the passport. The defence filed a new request. The prosecutor then referred the case up to the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Bitola, which came back with a conclusion instructing the lower prosecutor to submit a positive opinion.

The Higher Prosecutor's Office explained its own reasoning like this: the bail rules out any flight risk, and the defendant owns a company in Serbia whose operations had been seriously jeopardised, so he needed to travel urgently and sign documents. The Basic Court in Struga accepted it. Court president Judge Vulnet Vinca explained that the law does not allow both property bail and passport confiscation - it is one or the other.

On 29 July, Markovski travelled out through Tabanovce. He was held for a police check and then let through - because the system contained no active measure preventing him from leaving the country. So yes, everything was by the book. That is the most uncomfortable part of this story.

Who actually answers for it?

The prosecution later responded, confirming that every aspect of the decision would be examined. The prime minister says the Basic Prosecutor's Office holds a different report from the one submitted as the Higher office's minutes. If it is true that two different sets of minutes exist for the same matter, that is not a small procedural discrepancy - it is a question that demands an answer with a name attached, not a promise that the answer is „coming soon“.

Markovski's lawyer, Marjan Nikoloski, insists his client has not fled but is at a business meeting and returns on 1 August. The trial is scheduled for 2 September at the Basic Court in Struga. The case concerns abuses in tenders for relocating the drive stations from the „Oslomej“ mine to mines in Bitola. Eight individuals and the company „Markovski Kompani“ as a legal entity are charged.

Until then, one question sits there unanswered by anyone involved: if the system worked exactly as it is written in law, then who exactly will the investigation pursue - the man who applied the procedure, or the procedure that lets a defendant on nearly five million euros of bail walk through Tabanovce a day after a court ruling?