The External Office for Criminal Affairs in Vinica has filed criminal charges against G.I. (49) from the village of Kalimanci, Vinica region, and A.A. (31) from Vinica, on suspicion of committing a “continued criminal offence” in connection with the criminal offence of “theft”. Charges have also been filed against J.P. (59) from Vinica, manager of a legal entity from Vinica, for “negligent performance of duties”; against S.Ѓ. (64) from the village of Leski, Vinica region, an employee of the Public Enterprise “National Forests” – Regional Forest Management Unit “Plačkovica” in Vinica, for a “continued criminal offence” in connection with “abuse of official position and authority” and a “continued criminal offence” in connection with “forgery of documents”; against Љ.V. (63) from Vinica, an employee of PE “National Forests” – Regional Forest Management Unit “Plačkovica”, for “abuse of official position and authority”; against B.P. (64) from Vinica, an employee of PE “National Forests” – Regional Forest Management Unit “Plačkovica”, for “negligent performance of duties”; against Z.S. (66) from the village of Jakimovo, Vinica region, for a “continued criminal offence” in connection with “conducting public transport without a license”; and against T.M. (71) from the village of Kruševo, Vinica region, on suspicion of “conducting public transport without a license”.
The first and second suspects, G.I. and A.A., in the period from June 2024 to February 2025, carried out illegal logging of 1,108 trees, i.e. 44.32 cubic meters of wood, on cadastral parcels owned by four private individuals and partly on state-owned land, causing damage amounting to 310,240 denars.
The third suspect, J.P., as manager of the legal entity, acted negligently by marking the boundaries of a parcel and encroaching onto neighboring parcels with a total area of 4,080 square meters.
The fourth suspect, S.Ѓ., as transport officer, entered and issued eight delivery receipts and 26 transport waybills for the cut and transported timber and, without authorization, marked trees for logging using an inappropriate hammer.
The fifth suspect, Љ.V., conducted an inspection of the forest across the entire previously marked area for logging and prepared a Record of Field Inspection, after which an Approval for cutting firewood was issued.
The sixth suspect, B.P., a responsible person in the Regional Forest Management Unit “Plačkovica”, signed the approval without carrying out supervision of the undertaken activities.
The seventh and eighth suspects, Z.S. and T.M., based on the issued transport waybills for firewood, transported the wood using two cargo vehicles without possessing a license and an extract from a license for performing public transport in domestic road traffic.