Filipche Says Prosecutors "Told the Truth" on Modular Hospital Case — a Different Case Says Otherwise

SDSM leader Venko Filipche has reopened the debate over the 2021 fire at a modular hospital in Tetovo, after the Public Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime and Corruption closed the case last month, finding no grounds to suspect abuse of office or damage to the state budget.

"The prosecution said it clearly — no abuse of office, no damage to the budget. That reflects my entire record," Filipche said, calling on Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski to apologise to the families of the victims instead of "using the tragedy for political score-settling."

It matters that the prosecution's decision be treated for what it is — an administrative closure of an investigation, not a criminal verdict of guilt or innocence. Prosecutors did not hold a trial or issue a final judgment; they concluded there was insufficient evidence to pursue charges on this particular basis.

A Different Case, the Same Week

This week, VMRO-DPMNE issued a statement linking the modular hospital case to an entirely separate ruling — the Supreme Court's decision to overturn the verdict in the Laskarci bus crash, in which 16 people died. The party posed a rhetorical question: in what other country can more than 30 people die with no one held responsible. The two cases are legally and factually distinct — one concerns a bus crash, the other a hospital procurement — and folding them into a single narrative doesn't add clarity. It obscures an already complicated story on both sides.

MKNews Hub · Macedonia · September 12, 2026