<p>SKOPJE, North Macedonia — A former interior minister, an ex-intelligence chief, and four other officials from North Macedonia were sentenced to between three and 15 years in prison Friday over an unauthorized wiretapping operation.</p>
<p>The surveillance scandal, which broke in 2016, helped topple the small Balkan country’s conservative government after it emerged that some 20,000 people, including opposition politicians, judges, and journalists, were targeted. </p>
<p>During a three-year trial, prosecutors identified former intelligence service chief Sasho Mijalkov as the lead organizer of the wiretapping program. Mijalkov received a 12-year prison sentence, and former Interior Minister Gordana Jankulovska was sentenced to four years.</p>
<p>Mijalkov is a first cousin of former North Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, who fled to Hungary in 2018 to avoid serving a two-year jail sentence for involvement in a corruption scandal.</p>
<p>Also convicted Friday were two other former senior Interior Ministry officials, who fled the country in 2018 and were sentenced in absentia to 15 years each. </p>
<p>Two former police officials were sentenced to three and six years, while six other defendants were handed two-year suspended sentences. </p>
