Witness Goran Ignovski, who has been working for more than 34 years with the sale and service of rental equipment for events – sound, lighting and stage effects, said at a trial in the Idrizzovo courtroom that a year and a half before the tragic event at the Pulse nightclub in Kochani, he sold equipment (a remote activation box) and sprinklers to Pancho and another member of the DNK band.
The witness, who is the owner of the company Chkalja based in Kisela Voda, and now also of the E-audio brand, answering questions from the public prosecutor, said that he knew Pancho, who bought a remote activation case about three years ago, and sold eight cartridges for hot fountains to a member of DNK, who later learned that his name was Buco.
Ignovski said that he sold the suitcases legally in stores, and never sold hot water bottles because many permits were required. A year and a half before the critical event, he personally brought about 100 hot water bottles called Tropic from Bulgaria by car, which he said were mostly for demonstrating the suitcases to clients, and that he sold eight of them to DNK.
Asked why he thought that the bottles he sold to DNK at that time were not the ones used in the Pulse nightclub, given that remnants of bottles from the same company were found, the witness said that DNK used bottles at every performance from then until the tragic event, which means that they have used more than 100-200 bottles since then.
“I submitted images from videos and photographs from DNK events. In the past year and a half, they have used 100-200 bottles for events. So they used bottles at every event. Plus, I have neither sold it to anyone, nor has anyone contacted me, the witness clarified, emphasizing that the ones he brought were two-meter sprinklers for indoor use,” said the witness.
Before the tragedy in Kochani, at a performance in Gevgelija, in the De Fakto nightclub, as the witness said, the DNK band had a burning screen and speakers, with the same sprinklers and the same show.
“We sold a dozen – 15 pieces of those at most. I have not carried sprinklers because I have no way to sell them in the store legally. I have cold fountains and customers who buy them, why would I risk a company for MKD 100 per sprinkler,” testified Ignovski.
When asked by the defense attorney of defendant Dejan Jovanov, lawyer Ivana Koceva, the witness confirmed that he had purchased the hot fountains illegally from Bulgaria from the company Tropic and that he sold them to Pancho.
When asked whether the owner of the building, Dejan Jovanov, or his son, asked to buy sprinklers, he said no.
“I do not know the man, nor his son,” said the witness.
When asked by Mitko Stojanov’s defense about what happened to the rest of the sprinklers, he said that he often sold them for weddings and sold them just a month after purchasing them.
When asked whether the DNK continued to use the sprinklers after the fire in Gevgelija, he said yes.
“They never stopped using them, they are on Facebook non-stop,” said the witness.
When asked by defense attorney Ognen Gjorgjiev about the fact that in the last three or four years no one has checked him for selling pyrotechnic devices, he answered no.
“No, probably because I have another primary business, sound and lighting,” he said.
When asked whether the sprayers come with instructions for use when purchased, he replied that they should be on the packaging itself, but that he had not read them.
He confirmed that there was a danger sign, a warning on them.
The defense attorney for the defendants from the Ministry of Economy requested that a note be placed stating “who should be on the stand more, the defendants from the ministry who issued licenses in 2011, or this witness who smuggled pyrotechnics, kept them in his shop, sold them and made available a generally dangerous substance from which all these people died?”
To which the prosecutor responded that these remarks should not be allowed and pointed out that, as he said, “people did not die from the activation of a fire, but from having nowhere to escape from.”
When asked by the defense attorney for the defendant from the Market Inspectorate whether DNK used illegal pyrotechnics to set Pulse on fire, he answered yes.
When asked by the court whether the person who came to buy pyrotechnics at the time they were selling was required to have a license or permit to use them.
“First of all, we did not sell them legally to ask if he had a permit. I did Pancho a favor – eight sprinklers, and that’s it,” said the witness.
