The “Besa Trans” company, whose bus caught fire on the Struma road in Bulgaria and 45 passengers from Macedonia were killed, has four criminal charges for non-adherence with the Covid protocols in 2021.

The State Transport Inspectorate confirmed this for “Faktor”. It said that this year at the border crossings four inspections were carried out on the basis of compliance with the measures on the buses of this company and all cases resulted in criminal charges.

Legally, the offenses were treated as criminal because at the height of the pandemic strict compliance with the Covid-19 protocols was required, but the buses were always overcrowded with what was allowed, ie prescribed at the time.

The State Transport Inspectorate says that “Besa Trans” had all the necessary licenses and permits for free international transport, and in transit it mostly used the Deve Bair border crossing.

The Ministry of Transport and Communications, on the other hand, says that “Besa Trans” has a license for international free passenger transport from 2018, valid until 2022, but for the vehicles it had at that time.

From that moment, the company has not addressed the Ministry of Transport and Communications, Sector for Road Traffic, with a request for obtaining a certificate of license for a newly purchased vehicle, said the Ministry.