Oncology trial continues in Skopje against former clinic director Nino Vasev
Trial continues in Skopje for alleged negligent oncology treatment that prosecutors say affected 47 patients
Hearing in the criminal case known as “Oncology” against former director of the Clinic for Oncology, Nino Vasev, and two other oncologists continued at the Basic Criminal Court in Skopje on 26 August 2026.
The trial is presided over by Judge Snezhana Markovska; the prosecution is represented by prosecutor Marija Gjorgeva from the Public Prosecutor's Office – Skopje. The indictment accuses Vasev, together with oncologists Simonida Crvenkova and Dragan Jakimovski, of negligent medical treatment.
Expert testimony focused on consequences, not therapy choice
At the previous hearing, the defence requested and the court heard medical expert Vladimir Danilovski. Answering defence questions, Danilovski said his assignment did not concern whether the best possible oncological therapy was chosen, but rather whether the applied medical procedures produced demonstrable harm.
As Danilovski put it: "The subject of this expert opinion was not the choice of the best possible oncological therapy, but a medico-legal procedure on the consequences of the applied treatment. My task was to determine whether there is specifically proven damage, whether the health condition deteriorated as a consequence of the therapy, whether the therapy accelerated the fatal outcome and whether there is medically proven causal connection between a specific medical decision and a specific consequence." He also stressed that proving a departure from dosing guidelines alone is not sufficient in such cases to establish causation.
The indictment charges the doctors with prolonged serious offenses against public health and negligent treatment. Prosecutors say unsuitable therapies were applied to a total of 47 patients, including dosing deviations and insufficient assessments of patients' clinical condition. The proceedings earlier included another oncologist, Meri Peshevska, who accepted guilt and was sentenced by the court to a two-year suspended prison sentence.
Photo: press material from the event
