Judge Diana Gruevska Ilievska will be in charge of the Kocani fire trial. Regarding its approval of the charge, which came on the last day of the deadline, the Criminal Court said on Friday it had faced a series of problems in the previous three months, initially with the submission of the charge to all parties (37 persons and 33 attorneys).
In the meantime, Judge Branka Naumovska requested that she be recused, saying she was a relative of one of the victims, while Judge Biljana Kocevska requested the same, explaining that her daughter was a suspect’s attorney.
Due to conflict of interest, Judge Ivica Stefanovski was recused as well. Despite all these challenges, the Court explained, actions were as efficient as possible, considering public interest and the sensitivity of over 250 damaged persons and families of those killed in the fire.