The Interior Ministry charged Zoran Zaev, leader of the Social Democrats (SDSM), with plotting a coup and threatening Macedonia's constitutional order. At several meetings he held with Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski from September to November 2014, Zaev said he had compromising information concerning high-ranking Macedonian officials that he threatened to disclose unless Prime Minister Gruevski accepted the opposition demand for a caretaker government that would eventually lead to early parliamentary elections.

Sonja Verusevska and Branko Palifrov, two of the four suspects in the Coup police operation, will have to spend 30 days in detention. Zoran Verusevski, former director of the Security and Counter-intelligence Office (DBK), has already been detained on other charges, while Zaev was ordered Saturday to turn in his passport and is obliged to report with the court once a week.

According to the Interior Ministry, these four persons conspired to topple the government and extort various services through the use of illegal means of following, spying on and threatening high-ranking officials.