The Macedonian Court of Appeals overturned the verdict in the Besa Trans case and returned it for a new trial, reports BGNES.
On March 7, 2024, the court in Skopje sentenced to one year and eight months in prison Bekim Hadjiu, the owner of Besa Trans - the company linked to the bus that caught fire three years ago on the Struma highway.
In addition, the company was fined €13,000 and banned from international public transport for four years.
The accident, which occurred on 23 November 2022, is the deadliest road accident in the history of Bulgaria and Europe in the last decade, claiming the lives of 45 people, including 12 children, and injuring 7 others.
Charges have been brought against Hadjiu and the company for repeatedly falsifying documents to facilitate the bus's crossing of the Macedonian-Bulgarian border without the necessary permission for international passenger transport. The bus crossed the border 113 times without a valid permit.
The verdict was annulled due to significant procedural irregularities and the case was remanded for retrial.
The court ruled that the prosecution had failed to prove that the bus had left the country a total of 20 times without the necessary documents.
For half of the crossings there was evidence that false documents were used, but for the others the retrial would have to establish how the vehicle left the country.
"The court must determine how the bus left in these 10 cases without a license, whether by giving a bribe or by other improper means," the Appellate court explained. | BGNES
