On Monday, the closing arguments in the frames of the restarted trial over the 2021 modular hospital fire were presented during the hearing at the Tetovo Basic Court.
Directors Florin Besimi and Artan Etemi, as well as the Tetovo Clinical Hospital Public Health Institution, as a legal entity, are charged in the process with grave crimes against general safety.
The Prosecutor’s Office’s representative stated that based on the testimonies, as well as on material and verbal evidence, the defendants had committed the crimes. In that regard, he said the Court should find them guilty.
According to the Office, Besimi and Etemi had an obligation to provide fire extinguishers at the hospital, but didn’t do so according to prescribed regulations.
When it comes to the defender of the legal entity, he stated that the Hospital shouldn’t be found guilty because it hadn’t been directly obliged with regards to the modular COVID centres. As he explained, according to procurement contracts, that responsibility falls to ministries. However, he doesn’t disagree that a hospital should look after safety matters.
Nonetheless, the legal representative stated that modular hospital employees had testified that there had been fire extinguishers at the institution. Besimi’s attorney, on his part, stated that according to the contract to manage the institution, his client didn’t have an obligation to set up extinguishers. Also, he stated that Besimi hadn’t signed off on minutes concerning reception of the modular hospital, which was why he should be acquitted.
Etemi’s attorney, too, stated that his client should be acquitted, stressing that prosecutors had failed to prove a causal link proving his client was guilty. The verdict will be announced on 16 May. In the 8 September 2021 tragedy, a total of 14 patients and relatives of theirs were killed.