Employees of the Štip prison have refuted claims made by the Director of the Administration for the Execution of Sanctions and the Director of the Štip prison regarding a recent incident involving drugs. The employees assert that the directors presented numerous falsehoods during a press conference concerning events at the prison.

According to a statement released by the employees through Štip television “M Net,” the search for suspicious items thrown over the prison security wall was conducted with the intention of finding and seizing any unauthorized materials and reporting them to the police.

The employees stated that an initial search during the night was unsuccessful. However, a subsequent search in the morning led to the discovery of a plastic bag containing suspicious powdery and herbaceous substances. They added that after the discovery, standard procedures were followed, the prison director was notified, and the police were called to the scene. Inspectors from the police and criminal police arrived at the prison, and the found items were handed over for further investigation. The employees emphasize that these actions are documented in the prison police’s daily report and the police bulletin.

The prison employees strongly deny any suggestion that prison officers acted improperly or colluded with the convicted person. They maintain that the directors’ implications of such behavior at the press conference are unfounded.

Furthermore, the employees allege that the prison director had previously granted special privileges to the convicted person in question, including visits outside of regular hours and extraordinary packages. They claim that these instances were not mentioned during the press conference. The employees claim to have evidence of these visits recorded in the institution’s report books.

The employees’ denial follows a press conference where the Director of the Administration for the Execution of Sanctions claimed that someone threw drugs over the prison fence. He stated that after police failed to find the drugs in the dark, prison guards and inmates claimed they were searching for a lost watch. The director also mentioned that security cameras recorded the incident. He stated that the prison police and commander explained in their official note that inmate Ž. Ž. lost an expensive watch while playing with the dog Ceca.