Dejan Jovanov - Deko, owner of the "Pulse" nightclub in Kočani and the first defendant in the fire case, will not be leaving custody. His one-year detention in that case, the legal maximum, expires today. The day before, the Criminal Court in Skopje ordered a new 30-day detention - in a new investigation, for bribery.

According to the Public Prosecutor's Office for Organised Crime and Corruption, Jovanov bribed an official at the Ministry of Economy to obtain a hospitality licence - without ever submitting an application, and knowing that "Pulse" did not meet the legal requirements. The law provides for one to ten years in prison for giving a bribe. Detention was ordered because of the risk of flight and of influencing witnesses, and Jovanov is being moved from the prison in Kumanovo to Skopje Prison.

A licence without an application

This is the sentence worth reading twice. According to the prosecution, the state issued a permit for a venue that didn't meet the requirements, to an owner who never even asked for one. If that is proven, the licence wasn't an administrative oversight - it was goods that were bought.

That is exactly where the defence digs in. Lawyer Ivana Kocevska says the prosecution has had this evidence "for a year and a half already" and kept it "under the table" in order to extend detention once the deadline ran out. According to her, the ministry official has already been charged with "accepting a bribe" in the main fire case, for the same event, so she called the new investigation "a fabrication". Kocevska also requested house arrest because of Jovanov's health - the request was rejected.

Both possibilities are uncomfortable for the institutions. If the prosecution is right, bribery is at the heart of the tragedy, and a separate investigation into the person who allegedly paid is only being opened now. If the defence is right, detention is being extended by timing, not by evidence. Which of the two holds is something the court will have to decide.

A guarantee made of sheds and a barn

In parallel, the defence had offered a guarantee of 195,820 euros in real estate so that Jovanov could defend himself at liberty. The prosecution asked for it to be rejected: part of the property is subject to enforcement proceedings and cannot even be mortgaged, and much of the rest consists of outbuildings, sheds and a barn, previously built without permits. Yesterday the defence withdrew the offer.

The fire trial, with more than 30 defendants, is in the evidentiary stage before Judge Dijana Gruevska-Ilievska, and the indictment is being argued by 15 public prosecutors. The question Kočani has been asking since day one is simple: who allowed "Pulse" to operate. The new investigation at least offers part of the answer - how the licence was obtained. The rest is up to the court, and without any more delays.