Three people have been charged with causing public danger after ten months of investigation into the September 2021 fire in the modular COVID-19 hospital in North Macedonia.

North Macedonia Files Charges Over Deadly Hospital Fire

Forensic scientists and firefighters work at the site of the fire at a hospital for Covid-19 patients in Tetovo, September 9, 2021. Photo: EPA-EFE/Georgi Licovski

Three men have been charged with causing a crime against public safety that led to the deadly fire in Tetovo last September, the former head of the hospital, Florin Besimi, the official in charge of the technical side of the hospital and the medical doctor on duty during the tragedy, the Prosecution said on Wednesday.

The three have been charged with acting “against public safety”, while the former hospital director is additionally charged with breaking health protocols during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Two criminal indictments were raised against the hospital as a legal subject as well.

Fourteen people were killed and a dozen others injured when a fire ripped through the COVID-19 modular hospital on September 8, 2021.

The tragedy shook the nation and raised questions about the safety of the modular hospitals that were erected shortly after the pandemic struck.

The charges come 10 months after the start of the investigation led by the Tetovo prosecutor’s office. The indictment was submitted to the court.

Experts and investigators from the German Criminal Police also participated in the investigation, as part of the help that Germany offered to North Macedonia. Their seven-page report was submitted to the prosecutor’s office in January.

Amid questions asked about responsibility, but also about the safety of the materials inserted into these hospitals, and maintenance standards, in October last year the Prosecutor’s Office published a report prepared by the Department for Criminal Investigations.

The expertise contained in the report determined that the fire was caused by an electrical short circuit in a faulty electrical extension cord that had been used in the hospital to connect a defibrillator machine.

According to this report, the cable, which at that time had been alsop charging a mobile phone and another device, overheated and caused the fire.

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