The trial over the Kochani Fire case continued at the premises of the Criminal Court at the Idrizovo Prison in Skopje. At the hearing, three of the defendants in this case, construction inspectors from Kochani, pleaded not guilty over the charges against them.
They claimed that the cause of the fire in the nightclub on March 16 was the pyrotechnics, and not alleged errors or shortcomings in the construction of the object. According to them, construction inspectors are responsible only for checking eventual changes in the construction of the object, and not its interior.
The former Mayors of Kochani, Ratko Dimitrovski, Ljupcho Papazov and Nikolcho Ilijev, also pleaded not guilty, arguing that they had no authority to intervene over eventual alleged irregularities in the building where the nightclub was located, and pointed their fingers at other institutions, like the State Construction Inspectorate, the State Market Inspectorate and the Ministry of Interior.
Before the start of the hearing, relatives of the victims and the injured one in the tragedy organized a ‘welcoming’ for the defendants out of the courtroom by showing a great banner with pictures of all 63 victims, as a revolt to the defendants pleading not guilty at the previous hearing.