“The Office of Immigration and Asylum committed no error during its report at Tuesday’s session of Parliament’s National Security Committee”, Minister of Interior Sándor Pintér declared in a statement to reporters following the body’s extraordinary session on Wednesday.

“The Immigration Office provided information on the asylum procedure of Nikola Gruevski in a precise, professional and legal manner”, Mr. Pintér highlighted, adding that the Office can never disclose the details of the procedure, only to the UN. “The asylum-seeker is, however, not bound by such an obligation to secrecy, and accordingly is free to explain, even via the press, in what manner he wanted to enforce his request, for instance”, Mr. Pintér highlighted.

The Minister of Interior also showed reporters what the official decision looks like that is issued when an asylum request is decided upon, pointing out that it has no justification section relating to certain actions, and only includes legal points. Accordingly, the justification published in the press claiming to be what the Office based its decision on “cannot be real”, he explained.

According to Mr. Pintér, the Wednesday session of the Committee, at which, he highlighted, he took part because he believes it is important to preserve the prestige of security, was convened because of conclusions that have been drawn without any knowledge of the facts.

Relations between the Committee and the Ministry of Interior have been outstanding to date. In addition, at the session of the Committee the Minister underlined that his colleagues had provided a suitable reply in accordance with the law and their best professional knowledge, in accordance with their oaths.

“During the asylum procedure, the authorities are kept in check by the law and are bound to secrecy, but the law doesn’t bind the asylum-seeker”, he highlighted. “This is one explanation for the reports published by various press outlets”, he said.

Nikola Gruevski was Prime Minister of Macedonia from 2006 to 2016. Last week, an international arrest warrant was issued against him for not serving the two-year term in prison to which he was sentenced for abuse of office. Last Tuesday, the politician wrote on his Facebook page that he is in Budapest and has requested political asylum from the Hungarian authorities. Later on Tuesday, Nikola Gruevski also confirmed that he had received asylum status in Hungary.

(MTI)