The Interior Ministry needs to provide evidence to the public about the incident earlier this week in which three officers were injured – one of them badly – while pursuing a couple in Skopje’s Vodno area, said VMRO-DPMNE spokesman Naum Stoilkoski. The couple were violating the ban on residing in wooded areas that was put in place to prevent forest fires – and media outlets are reporting that they were the commander and a female officer of the elite police Tiger unit – which is the reason why the Ministry is covering up their identities.

The Interior Ministry must stop the speculations that are damaging the reputation of the Tiger police unit, and must inform the public whether Tiger commander Mitko Danevski was one of the two persons in the vehicle during the incident, Stoilkovski asked.

He added that the incident possible involved a Ministry owned Skoda Octavia, and demanded answers whether Danevski took the vehicle from the Skopje army barracks on the day of the incident. “Prosecutors can easily access video recordings that will show who was operating the vehicle”, Stoilkovski added.