North Macedonia's PM Hristijan Mickoski: Iva Mihaylova Was Transferred to Bulgaria Illegally

Prime Minister of the Republic of North Macedonia Hristijan Mickoski on October 15 said Bulgarian media were spreading an outright falsehood by claiming that Iva Mihaylova and her lawyer had crossed the border through an official checkpoint and had been greeted. Mickoski described these reports as a lie.

He claimed that the last time the lawyer entered North Macedonia was on 28 September.

The prime minister in Skopje said Mihaylova had been transferred to Bulgaria illegally.

• Republic of North Macedonia has notified Bulgaria that it is searching for Iva Mihaylova

“We are investigating,” Mickoski added, saying that the authorities would establish how she had been taken across the border.

He said that both Mihaylova’s father and Iva herself, who he claimed must prove her innocence, would sooner or later be held accountable by the authorities in North Macedonia.

Mickoski also said he regretted that Bulgaria’s political leadership was trying to demonstrate its political strength in this way, without realising the damage it was causing to the country’s standing internationally.

“I regret that, instead of returning someone with a final court sentence here to serve the sentence they were given, they are turning them into a star,” Mickoski said.

“I also regret that a young woman who spent most of her life and completed her education in her homeland, Macedonia, has decided to become what she is now being portrayed as in our eastern neighbour,” the prime minister of the Republic of North Macedonia added