SkopjeDiem Macedonia in English
On Saturday, the Kocani Basic Court said 24 of 27 suspects in the Kocani fire case had each been issued a 30-day detention measure. Among them are the co-owners of the nightclub, the organizers of the DNK band’s concert, resigning Mayor Ljupco Papazov and his predecessors, Nikolco Ilijev and Ratko Dimitrovski.
Previously, the detention measure against ex-Minister Kreshnik Bekteshi, Bekim Haxhiu, and the other persons that had held managerial positions had been extended as well.
In the case, three of the suspects are hospitalized, while the seven police officers arrested on 19 March are in detention too, that is, there are a total of 37 suspects, that is, 34 physical persons and three legal entities (the club itself, the security agency, and the company that draw up the basic project to reutilize the facility into a nightclub even though the legal conditions weren’t met).
The previous day, on Friday, Interior Minister Pance Toskovski had said the first stage of the actions regarding the fire had ended with two criminal charges against the 37 suspects. He also added that there would be new arrests and that everyone responsible for any oversight would be held to account.
The legal action against the seven aforementioned officers, Toskovski noted, proves oversights at any level will not be tolerated.
Also on Friday, Prosecutor-General Ljupco Kocevski stated that, according to the preliminary findings of the investigation, one of the nightclub’s owners, even though he’d known it hadn’t met conditions, would give money to an Economy Ministry employee in order to be issued a fake licence to operate.
“A procedure for receiving a bribe had been launched against the Ministry employee as well”, Kocevski underlined.
The nightclub’s three co-owners are suspects, but the investigation covers, among others, also Bekteshi, former Economy Ministry State Secretary Razmena Cekic Durovic, and multiple employees of that institution, TV21 said in the report.
“All of them, by failing to execute their official duties which they had the legal duty to execute, didn’t act according to regulations and technical rules of protection measures”, Kocevski noted.
According to the Prosecutor-General, former State Market Inspectorate Director Goran Trajkovski, predecessors of his, as well as three inspectors, are responsible for oversights as well.
“On no occasion did they conduct control over the operations of the legal entity to determine whether it had a valid license”, he emphasized.
Regarding Papazov, Ilijev, and Dimitrovski, and the former head of the Protection and Rescue Directorate, Kocevski stated that they had enabled the Pulse nightclub to unlawfully continue to carry out hospitality activities, in contradiction with the hospitality legislation and other conditions prescribed according to the law.
When it comes to those working security, they are suspected of not having acted according to plan and in line with a security assessment, of having failed to prevent pyrotechnics from being brought to the club, and of having allowed overcapacity, with juveniles, too, being among those at the concert.
