The Strumica Police Department has filed criminal charges with the Strumica Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office (PPO) against K.K. (36) from Strumica, who, at the time of the offense, served as the Mayor of the Municipality of Strumica, S.R. (38) from Strumica, who, at the time of the offense, served as the Head of the Department for Urban Planning, Communal Affairs, and Construction Land within the Municipality of Strumica, and J.P. (60) from Bitola, who, at the time of the offense, was the manager of a legal entity based in Bitola (now liquidated).
The charges are based on reasonable suspicion that K.K. and S.R. committed the criminal offense abuse of official position and authority, punishable under Article 353, Paragraph 1, while J.P. committed the criminal offense forgery of a document, punishable under Article 378, Paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code.
In 2022, K.K. and S.R. abused their official positions by enabling a legal entity to legalize an illegally constructed building located on a plot of land in the village of Kuklish. Specifically, the legalization was carried out after S.R. made a request to J.P. to prepare an elaboration for the deletion of structures on a cadastral plot in Kuklish, and to use said elaboration to delete structures owned by the Municipality of Strumica, with the aim of obtaining a “clean” property deed for the cadastral plot.
The Public Enterprise prepared an elaboration and a technical report containing false information, stating that no structures existed on-site, which were then used in the process of deleting structures owned by the Municipality of Strumica that had been built on a cadastral plot owned by the Republic of Macedonia. Through these actions, the reported individuals enabled T.J. from the village of Kuklish to obtain an unlawful financial benefit. Specifically, the first-reported individual issued a decision legalizing an illegally constructed structure—Building No. 1, designated as I4-B (storage facility/depot), located on the ground floor (Level 1) with an internal business area of 161 m² on the cadastral plot.
Furthermore, this procedure enabled T.J. to purchase the land beneath the building, involving the alienation of 866.46 m² of land owned by the Republic of Macedonia—and to have the property registered in his own name, granting him full ownership rights. Furthermore, the first and second reported individuals failed to take into account the circumstances that, in a prior period, proceedings had been conducted against T.J. In 2016, the Higher Administrative Court issued a judgment rejecting T.J.’s appeal, specifically denying his request for the legalization of an illegal structure, on the grounds that the structure is located on a plot of land where the Municipality of Strumica holds ownership rights.
Additionally, in 2019, the Higher Administrative Court issued a judgment confirming that T.J. had constructed a building without the appropriate building permit. Based on these findings, an authorized construction inspector from the Municipality of Strumica issued a decision ordering T.J. to remove the structure. Despite this, the reported individuals enabled T.J. to obtain a benefit, while causing damage to the Municipality of Strumica and the Republic of Macedonia.