The Skopje Public Prosecutor’s Office has launched an investigation into the illegal experimental treatment of patients in the private “Zan Mitrev” clinic in Skopje, after last night’s publication of the story of the Investigative Reporting Lab (IRL).

The “Zan Mitrev” clinic responds that it is a question of untrue qualifications that are aimed at intentionally damaging the honor and reputation of the hospital, and they are disturbing for the patients as well. They say that they are appalled by the tendentious hate speech used against them, as well as by the incorrect allegations, that is, the fabricated information that is solely aimed at creating a false image in the general public of the work of the hospital.

Immediately after the publication of the mentioned documentary show, the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office Skopje opened a case upon the receipt of information, under the Law on Criminal Procedure. The case has been assigned to a competent public prosecutor who will take actions to check the allegations of criminal acts against people’s health, reads the brief statement from the Skopje Public Prosecutor’s Office.

IRL’s investigation is based on 24 reports of citizens from Macedonia and Kosovo, who paid thousands of euros without being informed that they were part of a medical study. The documentary is based on the testimony of a family whose member died in the private clinic after contracting multiple intrahospital bacterial infections while undergoing hemofiltration. According to the Center for Public Health – Skopje, the “Zan Mitrev” clinic did not report the occurrence of intrahospital infections, although it is legally obliged to notify the state authority.

It is obvious that this false information was created with the intention of completely distorting the facts related to the long-term successful work of the “Zan Mitrev” hospital, where more than 400 experts and professionals work under the direction of Dr. Zan Mitrev, said the hospital.