The external office for criminal investigations in Probishtip has submitted a criminal complaint against Lj.M. (63) from Zletovo and D.I. (49) from the village of Kalnisht for having reasonable grounds for suspicion of committing the ongoing criminal offense of "negligent conduct in office," against J.K. (70) and D.K. (61) for having reasonable grounds for suspicion of committing the criminal offense of "use of a document with false content," and against B.M. (55) from Kochani for having reasonable grounds for suspicion of committing the ongoing criminal offenses of "incitement" and "assistance."
On February 4, 2025, the third complainant J.K. and the fourth complainant D.K., prompted by the fifth complainant B.M., submitted a request for the cutting of trees on their property in the area of the village of Lezovo, Probishtip, to the Public Enterprise "National Forests" - Regional Forest Management "Osogovo" - Kochani - RE Probishtip, despite the fact that their parcels are fields and do not contain such types of trees for cutting. The first complainant, after the requests were submitted, went to the site, conducted an inspection, and prepared a report in which he entered false information that there was timber—poplar trees available for cutting, even though there were no types of trees on the parcel. After the fee for issuing the cutting permit was paid, the first complainant prepared permits for the cutting of timber, one of which he did not even submit for the signature of the manager, and in order to conceal the illegality, he orally informed the fourth complainant that his request for cutting had been denied, which he had actually prepared and filed away in the case file.
Following this, the fifth defendant organized the cutting of poplars on a parcel of state-owned land. Meanwhile, the second defendant, in his capacity as an official at the Public Enterprise "National Forests" - Forest Management Unit "Osogovo" in Kočani - Regional Unit Probištip, on February 11, 2025, prepared a receipt for the logging and a receipt for the delivery without determining the actual condition of the cut timber and whether the timber originated from the designated trees, issuing waybills for the cut trees that were taken for sale to a company in Kavadarci. In the same manner, he acted upon the request of D.K., for which he forged the signature on the receipts of the fourth defendant, and then issued a false waybill for small technical walnut wood, which had actually been illegally cut and transported by truck, driven by the fifth defendant B.D., to a company in the Ohrid area. Through these actions, a total of 53.81 cubic meters of timber was cut, causing damage to the state budget amounting to 780,245 denars.