Macedonia's parliament voted on Monday to strip the country's former prime minister of his immunity to allow his indictment for alleged involvement in an arms procurement scandal.
The vote ratified a move by a parliamentary committee to strip Valdo Buckovski of his immunity at the beginning of this month, news reaching here from Skopje reported.
The opposition boycotted the vote, in which a total of 59 deputies from the governing coalition voted in favor while one abstained.
Prosecutors have asked for Buckovski, now an opposition Social Democrat lawmaker, to be arrested for his alleged involvement in a 2001 arms procurement deal, which they say cost the country 3 million euros (4.14 million U.S. dollars).
But police was unable to arrest him while he was still enjoying immunity as a parliamentary member.
It was reported that Macedonia's armed forces ordered four times the quantity of T55 tank parts in November 2001, when Buckovski served as the country's defense minister.
"This is a political montage, and somebody is pulling the strings behind the scenes," Buckovski, who was Macedonia's prime minister from 2004 to 2006, said ahead of the voting.
Source: Xinhua
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