An assault rifle, 44 rounds and a device with a timer: 18-year-old arrested in Kumanovo

On 17 October at 19:15, police in Kumanovo detained 18-year-old R.D. During a search of his home, carried out on a court warrant, officers found an assault rifle, magazines for the rifle holding a total of 44 rounds, one spent cartridge case and a home-made device wired to a timer and a battery.

That is the entire official statement. What the device is, where the rifle came from and what the timer was supposed to do, the Interior Ministry did not explain. It says only that once the case is fully documented, the appropriate charges will follow.

Also in Kumanovo, the regional police filed criminal charges against I.T., who was keeping someone else's Zastava pistol at home even though he knew he had no licence to own a firearm.

Finding the weapons is good police work. But an assault rifle and ammunition in an eighteen-year-old's home raise questions that do not end with a charge sheet: where did the weapon come from, who else has access to it, and what was the device with the timer for? The public deserves answers once the investigation has them.