17 Decisive Days for Artan Grubi – If the Prosecutor Fails to Act, His House Arrest Will Also Be Lifted

On August 22, the six-month deadline for the investigation into former DUI deputy prime minister Artan Grubi expires. If the prosecutor does not file an indictment by then, his house arrest will also be lifted.

The prosecutor from the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office in Skopje, who, after Grubi spent 14 months on the run, kept him in custody for only half a day before immediately easing the measure against him, has another 17 days under the law to complete the investigation. Otherwise, the suspect will be completely free.

“In the absence of an indictment, the house arrest of the suspect in question is lifted, and the Skopje Basic Criminal Court, acting ex officio, imposes a measure to ensure his presence. This usually entails the confiscation of his travel document,” the Criminal Court told Sakamdakazam.mk.

Grubi surrendered to the authorities at the Blace border crossing on February 23, 2026, after spending an extended period in Kosovo, where a passport is not required to cross the border—an identity card is sufficient.

He is suspected of embezzling 8.2 million euros from the State Lottery. Just a few hours after being taken into custody, he said he felt unsafe in Shutka prison, prompting the prosecutor, officials from the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Interior Ministry, together with the pretrial judge, to remove him from his cell immediately and propose house arrest.

On November 24, 2025, former state prosecutor Ljupço Kocevski said that the evidence against Grubi had been secured and that only his extradition from Kosovo was pending. The silence surrounding this case remains unexplained. As recently as yesterday, the Prosecutor’s Office said there were no new developments in the investigation that could be made public.

In addition to Grubi, Prparim Bajrami, the general director and chairman of the State Lottery’s Management Board, is also implicated in this criminal case and remains at large.

Four other people are under investigation as chairpersons and members of commissions handling two separate public notices. They are suspected of abusing their authority and special duties by conducting public procedures for transferring licenses for electronic and online games of chance, even though they knew that these procedures should not have been carried out in the cases in question.