site.btaProsecutor's Office in North Macedonia Indicts 34 Individuals, 3 Legal Entities over Deadly Nightclub Fire In Kochani

The Publuc Prosecutor's Office of North Macedonia has indicted 34 individuals and three legal entities for the tragedy at the Pulse nightclub in Kochani, where a fire on March 16 killed 62 people and injured almost 200.

At a press conference om Friday, North Macedonia’s Public Prosecutor Ljupco Kotsevski and the team of prosecutors who worked on the case announced that the prosecutor's office submitted to the court in Kochani the indictment with charges of “grave crimes against public safety”, with one of the suspects accused of accepting bribes to prepare false permits for the operation of the disco.

Kotsevski would not name specific names, but said that the main defendants were the owners of the company Classic DM Kochani, whose subsidiary was the Pulse nightclub, which on paper was run as a cabaret.

Kotsevski announced details of Thursday's raid by the Prosecutor's Office to prosecute organized crime and corruption. He said 13 police officers, mainly from Kochani, were detained in the raid on suspicion of committing serious crimes against public security in their official capacity.

The arrests concern the actions of the police on March 16 in the Pulse nightclub, where a large number of people gathered, no measures were taken to prevent the use of pyrotechnic equipment on the stage where the band DNA was playing, the use of pyrotechnics was not reported to the police station in Kochani, and it caused the fire in the nightclub.