Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic confirmed on Monday evening that Macedonia’s former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski crossed into Hungary from Serbia before an international arrest warrant was issued.

Gruevski was sentenced to two years in prison by a Macedonian court but fled the country before he was due to start serving the sentence and applied for asylum in Hungary. He is reported to have gone to Albania first, then to Montenegro and finally to Serbia before crossing into Hungary.

Vucic told Belgrade’s Hepi TV that Gruevski left Macedonia on November 11 using only his personal ID card in the company of two Hungarian nationals, crossing into Albania and then using the Bozaj border crossing to get to Montenegro.

According to Vucic, Gruevski crossed into Serbia at the Gostun border crossing using his ID card on November 12 and then went to the Horgos crossing with Hungary where he used his ID card and a special pass issued to him in Albania.

“The Interpol office in Skoplje handed us the international arrest warrant on November 13 at 07:35 pm. What do you expect? Should we arrest people who are not on arrest warrants? Let alone international warrants,” Vucic said and added that he was telling the truth about how Gruevski got to Hungary.