Washington, 8 August 2024 (MIA) – We’ve seen the reports and we won’t comment an ongoing investigation, the U.S. Department of State told Voice of America in Macedonian when asked whether Parliament Speaker Afrim Gashi should be held politically accountable for the Skopje airport incident last week involving Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani.

The Interior Ministry said that Gashi’s head of security with two other members of the security detail, following the Speaker’s order, had arrived in front of the VIP lounge at the airport, reloaded a handgun and scuffled with the police officers stationed there wanting to know why the airport staff insisted that the Kosovo president went through security control. 

Gashi has stated he had sent the members of his security staff to defuse the situation.

Kosovo’s Foreign Ministry called the Skopje airport incident “an inadequate and illegal treatment by the members of the airport security” of President Osmani.

TAV Macedonia, the operator of the Skopje International Airport, said the security scanning of the President’s belongings was in line with the aviation law and the international regulations as regards civil aviation security. 

Over this incident, alongside several other reasons, the opposition demands that Gashi should be replaced with the opposition party Levica filing a no-confidence motion against the Speaker. 

The Worth It coalition, whose member is Gashi, has called the no-confidence motion “an anti-NATO experiment.”

The ruling VMRO-DPMNE has said the Speaker should not be replaced because the institutions took urgent measures to sanction those responsible.

The MoI internal control sector suspended the head of security and opened procedure against the two security staff members. When asked whether Gashi will be held accountable, PM Hristijan Mickoski said no one is above the law. 

MIA file photo