Artan Grubi on Trial Tomorrow

Former deputy prime minister Artan Grubi will sit on the defendants' bench at the Criminal Court tomorrow, 24 August 2026, on charges of "abuse of official position and authority," an offense under the Criminal Code punishable by up to five years in prison.

Background of the case

The indictment states that Grubi and other persons are suspected of illegal actions related to the procurement of video-lottery terminals at the State Lottery. The indictment was filed ten days ago, on 13 August 2026, and according to it the Lottery initiated a procurement procedure worth hundreds of millions of denars and thereby, although it did not have the right to organize electronic games of chance on video-lottery terminals, caused damage to the joint-stock company of around EUR 8.2 million.

While the investigation was ongoing, Grubi was initially charged with the more serious criminal offense of "embezzlement in office," carrying a penalty of up to 20 years in prison, but the charge was later reclassified to abuse of official position. He is listed as the second defendant and is currently under house arrest with 24-hour police supervision.

The first defendant is Prpari Bajrami, former chairman of the Management Board and general director of the State Lottery; he remains at large and unavailable to law enforcement authorities. As stated in the indictment, at the Government session held on 6 June 2023, Grubi acted contrary to the Government's rules of procedure and bypassed the prescribed decision-making process.

The published indictment also prompted reactions within the DUI party. Party members who supported Grubi accused the leadership of having left him to face the charges alone. DUI denied that there had been a debate within the party about solidarity and assessed that this is political persecution, and Ahmeti told a Kosovo media outlet in an interview that he personally asked Grubi to return to Macedonia. Vlen, meanwhile, believes that Artan Grubi is "the black box of DUI" and that he can speak about what had been happening in Mala Rechica for years, and that because of that the party support for the long-standing integrator was absent.

Grubi was on the run for more than a year — he left the country in December 2024 via a border crossing with Kosovo despite being on the so-called "stop list." An international arrest warrant was issued for him. On 23 February this year he appeared at the Blace border crossing, where he was detained and taken into custody. However, he remained in Shutka only a few hours, because after his interrogation his detention was replaced by house arrest with 24-hour police supervision based on an assessment by the Ministry of Interior and the Agency for National Security that his safety in prison could not be guaranteed. Along with him, six other persons will also sit on the defendants' bench tomorrow; the text also states that he and seven others are charged in this case, all with abuse of official position.

Photo: press material from the event