An inspector asked the owner of Puls for his operating licence. She never got it. Instead of a document, she got a promise that it would be brought on Monday - the bookkeeper was not at the club, it was late. That was 2023. All of it was neatly written down in the inspection report.

Despina Simeonova, an independent inspector at the Regional Centre for Border Affairs East - Delčevo, testified at the trial of nine police officers charged in connection with the fire at the Kočani club. She has worked at the Interior Ministry since 2001. In 2022 and 2023, as an inspector for foreign nationals, she took part in several checks of hospitality venues in Kočani, Puls among them.

The checks took place at night - first from 22:00 to 03:00, later from 23:00 to 04:00. After each one a report was written and sent to the Regional Centre for Border Affairs East.

What they wrote down, and what they did not do

The licence was requested by her colleague Zlatko Kuzmanovski, who was responsible for the action plan, with Simeonova present. Dejan Jovanov neither showed it nor handed it over. He claimed he had filed the renewal paperwork in Skopje some fifteen days earlier and that the licence was valid until 31 March 2023.

It was noted. It was entered in a report. The report went where reports are supposed to go. And then - nothing. That is the part of the testimony that stings the most: the system was working, the paper moved up the hierarchy, everyone completed their line item. The owner who does not produce a document during an inspection remained the owner who does not produce a document.

"It is chaos, in one word - you cannot get through"

Asked by the prosecution about access to the building, Simeonova described a traffic situation that reads very differently today than it did then.

"It is chaos, in one word - you cannot get through. The car park used by the nearby hotel is full, and the street in front of the club is impassable because of parked vehicles," she testified.

The inspectors for foreign nationals acted within their own remit. Police, the Market Inspectorate and labour and social affairs inspectors also took part in the operational plans. After each operation the responsible officer wrote a report and submitted it to the duty service, that is, to the Kočani police station, from where it was meant to travel up the hierarchy to the Štip department.

Everyone was responsible for their own part. Nobody was responsible for the whole.

What comes next

The trial of the nine police officers continues with the prosecution presenting its evidence. The charges concern their handling of the building's safety and the fire of 16 March 2025, in which 63 people died and more than 200 were injured.

In a separate main case against Jovanov and the other defendants, evidence is being heard. The live question there is his detention, which according to the defence expires on 3 October, after which they have signalled they will offer property as bail.

On Wednesday the families of those who died held a march in Kočani, a year and a half after the fire. They asked for the court proceedings to run without delay and for everyone who bears responsibility to answer for it in court.

They are asking for speed from a system that showed none even when it was free - during one night-time inspection, in front of one man who said he would bring the document later.