Dejan Jovanov-Deko (centre), one of the defendants and owner of the nightclub, is pictured at the start of the trial for the blaze that killed 63 in Kocani in March. Photo / Robert Atanasovski, AFP
Dejan Jovanov-Deko (centre), one of the defendants and owner of the nightclub, is pictured at the start of the trial for the blaze that killed 63 in Kocani in March. Photo / Robert Atanasovski, AFP
A trial of 35 people over a deadly nightclub inferno has opened in North Macedonia in what is expected to be a lengthy case over the blaze that killed 63 people earlier this year.
The fire at a hip-hop concert in the eastern town of Kocani on March 16 triggereda stampede in the overcrowded Pulse nightclub, leaving dozens dead and injuring over 200 people.
Firefighters and police officers inspect the nightclub where a fire broke out overnight in Kocani, about 100km east of the capital Skopje, on March 16, 2025. Photo / Robert Atanasovski, AFP
Almost eight months on, lawyers, victims’ parents and supporters filled a court on the outskirts of the country’s capital for the opening of the trial over the tragedy, which left the Balkan nation reeling.
“With the greatest humility for the lost lives and the seriously injured and their families and close ones, we are here in this process to demand responsibility,” prosecutor Borce Janev told the court, as families and media watched through glass windows.
The trial is set to be one of the largest in North Macedonia’s history, with former ministers among the 35 defendants and widespread media and public interest in the case.
The accused, who also include three former Kocani mayors, the club’s owner, building inspectors and club security, are charged with “serious crimes against public security”.
‘Mass Grave’ nightclub
Janev read out the indictment and a list of alleged safety defects at the club, which he said led to “a mass grave and a horror of unprecedented scale”. Many people wept inside the court.
“Today we demand responsibility with name and surname, we demand justice,” he said, drawing applause from the victim’s families and supporters in the courtroom.
Relatives and friends of the victims at the start of the trial in the courtroom next to the Idrizovo correctional facility near Skopje. Photo / Robert Atanasovski, AFP
Earlier, presiding Judge Dijana Gruevska-Ilievska addressed fears that – in a nation regularly criticised by the European Union for its sluggish judicial system – that the trial could take years to resolve.
“We can not guarantee how long it will last, no one can know that. I ask for discipline as we all want to come to the justice,” Gruevska-Ilievska told the court.
Following the prosecution’s opening, the judge set November 25 as the date for the next hearing.
Outside, grieving parents thanked the prosecutors but vented frustration at institutions, the lawyers of the accused and a court system they felt had already let them down.
“They took away our future, our youth,” Tomco Stojanov, the father of one victim told media.
“Every country has a mafia, but in our country it turns out that the mafia has a state. We are so disappointed from the start that we don’t know who can help us survive in this painful situation.”
The families, who have been pushing for months for justice in the case, held a march on Saturday calling for a swift trial and a separate inquiry led by lawmakers.
