Parliamentary oversight committee to hold session over Onyshchenko case
Skopje, 16 November 2022 (MIA) - The committee tasked with supervising the work of the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Intelligence Agency on Wednesday will hold a session to review the NSA role in its security checkup of Oleksandr Onyshchenko when issuing a positive opinion enabling Macedonian citizenship to be issued to him.
Earlier this week, committee chairman Ljupcho Prendzov said the NSA head should explain how Onyshchenko passed the security checkup after the controversial Ukrainian former politician had been charged with corruption in his home country and later included by the US on a list of sanctioned persons.
"He is the one who should elaborate. Personally, I'm very concerned about the issuance of Macedonian citizenships and Macedonian passports. I have the feeling as if though almost every criminal owns a Macedonian passport. I believe it is a serious challenge and an anomaly of the state security sector," said Prendzov.
The Ukrainian national Onyshchenko was awarded Macedonian citizenship as an equestrian athlete after his name was proposed by the Equestrian Federation. The government approved his Macedonian citizenship after all competent institutions has issued a positive opinion.
Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski has said that he asked the institutions involved in the granting of the positive opinion for his citizenship the submit a report explaining the procedure.