“Regarding public reactions related to action by police officers during the search, the Department of Internal Control, Criminal Investigations, and Professional Standards is taking proper measures and activities under its competence, of which we will additionally notify the public”, the Interior Ministry said on Saturday.
The press-release concerned a video posted on social media showing a chief demanding that 57-year-old Maja Lozanovska, Head-teacher of Krste Petkov Misirkov Secondary School, located in Demir Hisar, be taken for an informative conversation at a police station on an ambulance stretcher.
However, the Prosecutor’s Office said there had been a search order, but not an order for a detention or urgent questioning of the person. According to the Interior Ministry, the searches concerned suspicions of the crime of taking away or destroying an official stamp or paper (Article 390 of the Criminal Code).
“On 8 August 2025, following a previous report over the existence of grounds of suspicion of a committed crime according to Article 390 of the Criminal Code, taking away or destroying an official stamp or paper, on the basis of an order from the Bitola Basic Court, from 7:25 pom to 8:20 pm, police officers from the Demir Hisar External Office of Criminal Matters, in the presence of an attorney, searched the home of M.L. (57) from Demir Hisar. Also, through a court order, from 8:45 pm to 9:30 pm, the official areas in a secondary school used by M.L., were searched as well”, the Ministry also said.
Commenting on the case, SDSM fiercely criticised Minister Pance Toskovski and the “political pressure”.
“Now, the reason for the changes made by Pance Toskovski to the Law on Police and Law on Internal Affairs, aiming at full partisanship of police, political persecution, and abuse for partisan purposes of VMRO-DPMNE, is crystal clear to citizens. Police are becoming an extended arm of VMRO-DPMNE, while citizens are the victims. Today, it’s a secondary school head-teacher. Tomorrow, it will be someone else. SDSM is demanding that the brutal pressure and unlawful dismissal of Head-teacher Maja Lozanovska stop right away. Laws have to be respected, regardless of who it’s about. We demand accountability for all those that are carrying out this unlawful procedure and that have allowed police to be put in the service of political persecution”, the opposition party stressed.
VMRO-DPMNE said that the dismissal showed principles and morality, which hadn’t been the case during the rule of the SDSM-DUI cabinet.