Skopje, 11 July 2025 (MIA) - The trial of the former director of University Clinic for Radiotherapy and Oncology Nino Vasev and three other oncologists charged with medical malpractice, has been postponed to September 5 on Friday at the Criminal Court due to the absence of the second defendant, Meri Peshevska.

At the Basic Criminal Court in Skopje, the main defendant Nikola Vasev and two oncologists, Simonida Crvenkovska and Dragan Jakimovski, appeared in court, while for Meri Peshevska, her lawyer Jovica Strashevski submitted medical documentation dated July 10 along with a request to postpone today’s hearing.

The defense submitted new evidence ahead of today’s hearing, aimed at disputing the prosecution’s expert reports.

Vasev’s lawyer told the court the document shows that Maja Radnik is not officially recognized as a court-appointed expert in Slovenia.

In response, Prosecutor Ana Gogovska Jakimovska said the indictment had gone through the evaluation procedure and expressed confusion over why this issue hadn’t been raised at that stage.

Judge Snezana Markovska, who is presiding over the case, accepted the request to postpone today’s hearing due to the absence of the second defendant, and in order for the Court to also review the defense’s motions to dismiss part of the evidence submitted by the Prosecution.

According to the indictments, Vasev and the three doctors had prescribed clearly inappropriate medications at wrong dosages, causing serious harm to patients.

Also, dying patients had been given expensive new-generation drugs as well as targeted and immunotherapy treatments the day before their deaths, when it was obvious the patients were unlikely to live long enough for the drugs to work.

Criminal judge Snezhana Markovska is presiding over the trial.

In a separate lawsuit pending at the Criminal Court, Vasev is also facing abuse of office, fraud and embezzlement charges.

In that case, the indictments filed in the Criminal Court allege that he and the Oncology Clinic's former organizational director Nehat Nuhi, in procuring cancer drugs, had violated the clinic's statute as well as several laws, including the Law on Public Procurement and the Law on Health Insurance.

Photo: MIA