Macedonia accused of spying on 20,000 citizens over four years
Republic of Macedonia's* Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski along with secret police chief Saso Mijalkov have been spying on, well, just about everyone important in the country except themselves, according to the opposing political party. Opposition leader Zoran Zaev from the Social Democratic Party has accused the two of ordering constant surveillance on him for at least five years in a press conference earlier -- years longer than the 14-month max duration of any court-sanctioned eavesdropping. But it's not just Zaev himself: he says the other members of his party and (in a perfect example of what happens with unchecked government surveillance) even Gruevski's own allies are targets of this politically motivated surveillance program.
In fact, he says the program has been spying on roughly 20,000 people for at least four years, and authorities did so with cooperation from mobile providers. "Gruevski and several people around him are behind this operation," Zaev claims. "The material we have shows that illegal wire-tapping was under direct orders from Saso Mijalkov. This kind of massive wire-tapping can be done only by a domestic service."
The prime minister has recently accused Zaev and the opposition of planning a coup against the government, charging them with espionage, which has led to five arrests thus far. Zaev maintains that Gruevski did that to shut them up, which clearly didn't work if that's the case. During the press conference, the Social Democrat Party played some of Zaev's phone calls, which were allegedly recorded by government spies, along with a call between two known Gruevski allies.
Journalists at the event were handed even more material -- CDs with 11 taped phone conversations and their transcripts -- which the party says came from "brave people" within Macedonia's intelligence agency. The opposition has promised that those materials will be released, as well, but for now, you can listen to the calls played during the conference... if you understand Macedonian.
[Image credit: AFP/Getty Images]
*Update: We've updated the first line to clarify that we are talking about the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and not the Greek region.
