Latvia's parliament has voted to allow a probe against Janis Adamsons, a former interior minister and a lawmaker from the opposition Social Democratic Saskana (Harmony) party, who is accused of spying for Russia.
A total of 60 lawmakers on December 9 supported the move by the Prosecutor-General's Office to launch an investigation against Adamsons, while 18 voted against it.
Earlier in June, parliament voted to strip Adamsons of his parliamentary immunity to allow for his arrest and a search of his home.
Media reports say that Adamsons is suspected of passing information related to Latvian laws, military finances, the situation along Latvia's eastern borders, and the Baltic state's attitude to the Russian Nord Stream 2 natural-gas pipeline in Europe to Russian agents over the last four years.
Adamsons has denied any wrongdoing.
Adamsons graduated from the High Naval Political College in Kyiv in the 1970s, when Latvia was a Soviet republic.
From 1979 until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, he served in the Soviet Border Guard forces in Russia's Far East.
After Latvia regained independence in 1991, Adamsons served as the commander of Latvia's Border Guard service and as interior minister.
Adamsons is a member of the parliamentary commission for defense, interior affairs, and the prevention of corruption.
Adamsons’ eligibility to be a lawmaker has been questioned in the past by politicians who accused him of serving in the ranks of the KGB, since the Border Guard troops during the Soviet era were under KGB command.
Latvia declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 and is now a member of the European Union and NATO.