Skopje, 2 February 2026 (MIA) — The Pulse nightclub fire trial resumed Monday at the Idrizovo courtroom, with Petre Shilegov, who is defending the Ministry of Economy's former employee Shefket Hazari, requesting the Public Prosecutor's Office halt the proceedings for his client and other defendants after the prosecution last week dropped the investigation against seven police officers on the grounds that their duties did not include conducting fire safety checks.

Shilegov said other defendants should not be charged with grave crimes against general safety for the same reason. "The people who will be here in the dock are people who had no duty to conduct inspections," he said.

"It is contradictory," he said, "in the same legal event, with the same legal qualifications, for the state to say to some people, 'Look, you could not have committed this crime as you did not personally cause the fire,' yet to have completely different claims about the people who are here."

Judge Dijana Gruevska Ilievska, who is presiding over the trial, said the proceedings cannot be stopped until the competent prosecutor has made a statement.

The prosecutor in question from the specialized department for the prosecution of criminal offenses carried out by persons with police powers and members of the prison police at the Public Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime and Corruption told a media briefing on Jan. 30 that the investigation was dropped for seven police officers after it was found out that, under Article 6 of the Hospitality Law, they had been competent only to conduct public order and peace checks as well as traffic safety checks, but not fire safety checks.

Previously during the Pulse trial, several witnesses described the panic and chaos that ensued when flames and smoke engulfed the crowded nightclub. They also spoke about the consequences they still suffer.

The fire that broke out in the Pulse nightclub in Kochani on March 16 killed 63 people and injured over 200. The venue was packed with mostly young people attending a concert by hip-hop duo DNK when sparks from pyrotechnic devices set the ceiling on fire.

At the start of the trial, the prosecution, represented by a team of 15 public prosecutors, said evidence would show that the Pulse nighclub was a death trap from the beginning, the result of systemic negligence and a series of institutional failures.

Thirty-four people and three legal entities have been charged over the deadly fire, including owners, managers, inspectors, former mayors, security guards and civil servants. mr/