Skopje, 21 December 2023 (MIA) - The Skopje-based Criminal Court has acquitted former director of the Oncology Clinic, Nikola Vasev, and two other doctors, of negligence charges filed by family of a deceased patient in 2018.

Judge Slavica Naumovski said Thursday that defendants Nikola Vasev, Igor Stojkovski and Marija Simonovski are acquitted of the charges, given that the evidence presented during the trial had not proven the crime they were charged with. 

"During the trial, the public prosecutor failed to prove the exact time and manner of committing the crime," said judge Naumovska.

In a media statement after the verdict was announced, public prosecutor Lidija Raichevikj said the prosecution will appeal the decision to the second-instance court, noting that she has claimed and will continue to claim that the crimes have been committed, and the three doctors deserve to be sentenced.

The case was opened in 2021, and according to the indictment, a patient with malignant melanoma has not been prescribed therapy at the Oncology Clinic for three months in 2018, and died after his health condition had deteriorated.  

According to the indictment, Vasev, who was director of the Oncology Clinic at the time, did not approve prescription of appropriate therapy from June to September 2018. In November 2018, he told the patient's family to get medicines themselves from a neighboring country, though he was not a co-ordinating doctor, but the two other accused doctors were in charge of treating the patient. They were charged with negligent treatment of patients, because after the patient had not been prescribed therapy for three months, his health condition worsened, and he died in January 2019. 

Photo: MIA