Criminal charges against former Strumica mayor Kostadin Kostadinov over illegal legalization in Kuklish

Police in Strumica have filed criminal charges against the former mayor of Strumica, Kostadin Kostadinov, and two other people over alleged abuse of office and document falsification linked to the legalization of an unauthorised building in the village of Kuklish.

In a police statement, the Strumica Police Department said: "Strumica Police Department filed a criminal complaint with the Basic Public Prosecutor's Office – Strumica against K.K. (36) from Strumica, at the time of the offence mayor of the Municipality of Strumica, S.R. (38) from Strumica, at the time of the offence head of the Sector for Urbanism, Communal Affairs and Construction Land at the Municipality of Strumica, and J.P. (60) from Bitola, at the time of the offence manager of a legal entity from Bitola (now liquidated), on grounds of a well-founded suspicion that K.K. and S.R. committed the criminal offence of abuse of official position and authority, and that J.P. committed the criminal offence of falsification of documents."

How the police say the scheme worked

According to the police description of the case, Kostadinov and the then-head of the municipal urbanism sector in 2022 enabled the legalization of a building on a cadastral parcel in Kuklish where there were objects owned by the Municipality of Strumica. The municipal official allegedly asked the Bitola company manager to prepare a report to delete objects from the cadastral parcel.

Police say the report and a technical inspection falsely stated that there were no constructions on the site, even though municipal-owned structures existed there. "The legalization was carried out so that S.R. requested J.P. to prepare a report for the deletion of objects on the cadastral parcel in Kuklish and such a report was used to delete objects that were the property of the Municipality of Strumica, so that the cadastral parcel would receive a clean title. J.P. prepared a report and a technical report with untrue content that no objects existed on the site and these were used in the procedure for deleting objects that were the property of the Municipality of Strumica, and were built on the cadastral parcel owned by the Republic of North Macedonia," the police report states.

As a result, the police allege, an individual from Kuklish, T.J., obtained a legalization decision for a warehouse with an internal floor area of 161 square metres. That decision allowed him to purchase the land under the building and to alienate and register land of 866.46 square metres, owned by the Republic of North Macedonia, in his name. "By these actions, the accused enabled T.J. from Kuklish to acquire unlawful property benefit, by issuing a decision for the legalization of an unauthorised building which legalized building — structure no. 1 with use I4-B (warehouse) on ground floor level 1 with an internal business area of 161 square metres on the cadastral parcel, and with such procedure also enabled him to purchase the land under the building, to alienate land of 866.46 square metres owned by the Republic of North Macedonia and to be registered in his name with ownership rights," the police added.

Police also noted that previous court rulings had not been taken into account during the procedure. In 2016 the Higher Administrative Court dismissed the individual's appeal against denial of legalization, stating that the parcel contained property owned by the Municipality of Strumica. A 2019 judgement confirmed that the structure had been erected without the required building permit, and a municipal building inspector ordered the removal of the construction.

The investigation is now with the Basic Public Prosecutor's Office in Strumica. The police statement lists the charges as abuse of official position and authority and falsification of documents; further procedural steps and potential indictments will be decided by the prosecutor's office.

Photo: Printskrin