BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary's prime minister says authorities will evaluate and give an opinion on the extradition request made by Macedonia for its fugitive former prime minister who has been given asylum in Hungary.

Viktor Orban said Friday on state radio that Nikola Gruevski, who fled Macedonia last week to avoid serving a two-year prison term for corruption, is an ally of Hungary who deserves fair treatment.

Orban, who had anti-migrant border fences built in 2015, said that without similar policies from Gruevski, who was prime minister between 2006 and 2016, "it would have been much more difficult, if at all possible, to protect the Hungarian border."

Gruevski made an asylum request at a Hungarian diplomatic mission in Albania last week and arrived in Hungary by car, escorted by Hungarian diplomats.