North Macedonia: 4 officers arrested over convict’s escape

By KONSTANTIN TESTORIDES
Associated Press

SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP) — Authorities in North Macedonia have announced that four prison officers including a police commander have been arrested under suspicion of having helped a prisoner convicted of murder escape while being transferred to a hospital. The prosecutor’s office said Saturday that the commander in charge of external security at the capital Skopje’s main prison of Idrizovo and three officers “helped and enabled the convict Bekim Memeti to escape.” They are charged with “illegal release of a person deprived of liberty.” Prosecutors said that Memeti injured himself by cutting the palm of his hand late Thursday. And following the police commander’s instructions he was sent without an escort to an emergency treatment center instead of being treated in the prison’s infirmary.