Supreme Court annuls the verdicts over the Tetovo modular hospital fire that killed 14 patients and sends the case back for retrial

At a session held on October 22, 2026, the Criminal Council of the Supreme Court upheld the requests for extraordinary review of a final judgment filed by the defence lawyers of the convicted persons in the “Modular Hospital Tetovo” case (KVP2-36/26). The court annulled the judgment of the Basic Court Tetovo K-512/24 of May 16, 2025 and the judgment of the Court of Appeal Gostivar KZh-211/25 of November 26, 2025, and returned the case to the first-instance court for renewed proceedings and a new decision. The decision was announced on October 30. The story was carried by MKD.mk, Nova Makedonija, Republika, Lider, Netpress, Makfax and other outlets.

The fire. On September 8, 2021 a fire broke out in the modular hospital in Tetovo, which housed COVID-19 patients. Fourteen patients died and 12 were injured, according to Plusinfo. Five years and 44 days passed between the fire and the Supreme Court session (our calculation).

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The earlier verdicts. According to Plusinfo, the defendants in the proceedings were the former directors of the Clinical Hospital in Tetovo, Florin Besimi and Artan Etemi, and the hospital itself as a legal entity. The Basic Court Tetovo ruled on May 16, 2025, and the Court of Appeal Gostivar increased the sentence from one and a half to three years in prison for each of the two, and the fine for the hospital from one to 1.3 million denars. Plusinfo reports this in December 2025, while in the Supreme Court’s notice the date of the judgment is November 26, 2025. With the annulment the earlier verdicts no longer stand, and the presumption of innocence applies to the defendants until a new final decision is made.

What the Supreme Court decided about the hospital. The request for extraordinary review of the judgment against the legal entity, the Clinical Hospital Tetovo, was rejected as inadmissible. What this means for the fine imposed on the hospital is not stated in the reports.

Why the verdicts were annulled. The reasoning is not published in the reports we checked. We therefore do not know whether it concerns a procedural violation, an incorrectly established factual situation or something else. That will become clear if the written reasoning is published.

What extraordinary review is. It is an extraordinary legal remedy filed against a final judgment, and it is decided by the Supreme Court. With it the defence lawyers challenged the verdicts that had already become final. The decision therefore does not mean an acquittal, but that the proceedings must be repeated from the first-instance court.

What follows. The case returns to the Basic Court Tetovo, which must try it again and issue a new decision. No deadline or date for the first hearing has been published. A final decision on the fire therefore still does not exist.

A separate procedure. On August 20, 2026 the prosecutor’s office for organised crime and corruption closed the nearly five-year pre-investigation into the procurement and construction of the 19 modular hospitals, with no evidence of abuse of office or other prosecutable offences, according to Plusinfo. That is a separate procedure from the fire case.

What to follow. Whether the Supreme Court’s reasoning is published, when the Basic Court Tetovo schedules a new hearing and whether the charge will remain the same.

MKNews Hub · Macedonia · November 1, 2026