In coordination with the Public Prosecutor of the Republic of North Macedonia, the Basic Public Prosecutor of the Basic Public Prosecutor's Office Skopje made a decision on the establishment of a special department for serious and complex crime that will deal with cases of crimes for which the penalty of life imprisonment is prescribed with a larger number of defendants and volumes of evidence, financial investigations, complex cases and cases of exceptional public interest.

The department, as informed by the Prosecutor's Office, will be managed by the public prosecutor Vladimir Milošeski, together with seven experienced public prosecutors from the Skopje prosecutor's office.

The need for this organizational change, according to the Public Prosecutor's Office, stems from the increased influx of complex criminal cases during 2024 that result from several indicators, among which are the amendments to the Criminal Code, especially in relation to the crime of abuse of official position and authorization by article 353 and the amendment of article 98-a for extended confiscation in the same law, which, according to them, requires a different internal - institutional setting and increased involvement of public prosecutors in the pre-investigation procedure, due to timely financial investigations.

- During the current subject operation and monitoring of the situation in terms of criminality, forms of serious and complex criminality have been observed, primarily related to crimes against life and body, crimes against people's health, crimes against official duty and crimes against public finances of the territory under the jurisdiction of the Skopje PBO. The main feature of these crimes is a large number of involved persons and legal entities, the complexity of the actions that need to be investigated and determined, and at the same time to detect the harmful consequences as a whole, as a legal feature of the crimes. Taking into account that the perpetrators are increasingly using various mechanisms to conceal both the criminal-legal actions and the direct and indirect illegal property benefits from the criminal behavior, this complicates the research activity and requires additional knowledge and a special commitment of the public prosecutors for research and prosecution of these forms of crime, explains the OJO.

The department, as they add, with a qualitative and quantitative capacity for prosecuting serious and complex crime, should give an appropriate stimulus to the judicial police in its investigative function, as well as to its own investigative capacities in the investigation center, through effective directing of actions and measures in pre-investigation procedure.

- The ultimate goal of the newly formed department is adequate criminal-legal protection of citizens and an efficient institutional response to complex forms of crimes, say the Prosecutor's Office.