Skopje, 27 October 2025 (MIA) — Two members of the management team of the city's sanitation services company Communal Hygiene have been taken into custody over suspicions of a criminal offense in connection with Skopje's waste problem.

According to the Public Prosecutor's Office in a press release, the suspects were detained over suspicions of the crime of endangering the environment and nature with waste under Article 230 of the Criminal Code: "Whosoever by leaving, throwing, collecting, improperly transporting one or several related shipments, processing or removing waste, creating landfills contrary to the regulations for protection of the environment, omitting the supervision of the collection, transporting or processing, improperly managing the waste, or in any other manner causes or may cause significant deterioration of the quality of the soil, air or water or danger to the human life or health or destruction of the flora and fauna to a larger extent, or of rare species of plants and animals, shall be sentenced to imprisonment of one to five years."

The PPO release said the police were collecting evidence against the suspects under an order issued by the prosecution.

Earlier Monday, some media reports said one of the detained suspects was Communal Hygiene director Sabahadin Rustemi. The police and the PPO have not officially confirmed this information.

The PPO launched an investigation into the work of the capital city's sanitation services after uncollected trash piled up on sidewalks and streets throughout Skopje in recent weeks, which prompted health authorities to issue recommendations on protecting residents from infectious waste. mr/