North Macedonia: Police arrest 3 on suspicion of terrorism
SKOPJE, North Macedonia -- Police
in North Macedonia say they have arrested three men on suspicion of planning
terrorist attacks in the country and have seized a large quantity of weapons in
raids in five locations in the country’s north.
Police said on Tuesday the three
men, one aged 22 and the others aged 25, had previously been convicted of
participation in the Islamic State militant group and had served jail sentences
on their return from the Middle East.
They were arrested on suspicion of
creating and participating in a “criminal cell, based on the ideological matrix
of the ISIS terrorist organization, with the intention of carrying out a
terrorist act on targets in the territory of the Republic of Northern
Macedonia,” police said. No specific targets were mentioned.
The group members allegedly
provided financial means and procured a large quantity of weapons, ammunition
and military equipment, which they hid near a road in the northern village of
Biljanovce, authorities said.
Police said they seized five
automatic rifles, a machine gun, 18 ammunition belts for automatic rifles,
eight grenade launchers with fuses, camouflage vests and an ISIS flag with an
Arabic inscription from the location.
Another three raids in the
northern town of Kumanovo and one in the capital Skopje led to the seizure of
two handmade belts filled with explosives, metal ball bearings, two hand
grenade launchers and other items.
The three have been charged with
terrorism and creating a terrorist organization. If tried and convicted of both
charges, they face a total of up to 15 years in jail.
In 2016, authorities estimated
that some 150 Macedonian nationals had traveled to fight alongside Islamic
insurgents in Iraq and Syria. Most were from the country’s mainly Muslim ethnic
Albanian minority, which represents about one-fourth of North Macedonia's
population of 2.1 million people.
