{"id":28576,"date":"2026-03-01T17:10:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T17:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/28576\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T17:10:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T17:10:17","slug":"former-kosovo-intel-chief-sentenced-in-retrial-over-illegal-deportation-of-turkish-nationals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/28576\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Kosovo intel chief sentenced in retrial over illegal deportation of Turkish nationals"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A Kosovo court has again sentenced former intelligence chief Driton Gashi to more than four years in prison for his role in the illegal deportation of six Turkish nationals to Turkey in 2018, ruling that he exceeded his official authority in the controversial operation, Turkish Minute<\/a> reported, citing the\u00a0Koha.net\u00a0news website.<\/p>\n

The Basic Court of Pristina on Tuesday handed down the same sentence it had issued in 2023, following a retrial ordered by the Appeals Court. Gashi, the former head of the Kosovo Intelligence Agency (KIA), was convicted of \u201cabuse of official duty.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the prison sentence, the court banned him from holding public office for four years after serving his time.<\/p>\n

The verdict is not final and may be appealed within 30 days, according to Koha.net.<\/p>\n

Announcing the ruling, Judge Violeta Namani Hajra said Gashi had \u201cexceeded his powers by forcibly deporting Turkish citizens from Kosovo and handing them over to the Turkish authorities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Balkan Insight news website also\u00a0quoted<\/a>\u00a0the judge as saying, \u201cThrough his actions, Gashi violated standard procedures and instruments of human rights. \u2026 By deporting Turkish nationals, he has exposed them to a real danger of torture, physical mistreatment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The case concerns the March 29, 2018, detention and deportation of five teachers \u2014 Kahraman Demirez, Mustafa Erdem, Hasan H\u00fcseyin G\u00fcnakan, Yusuf Karabina and Cihan \u00d6zkan \u2014 and cardiology professor Osman Karakaya.<\/p>\n

The teachers were employed at the \u201cMehmet Akif\u201d schools, linked to the G\u00fclen movement, a faith-based group inspired by the late Muslim cleric Fethullah G\u00fclen.<\/p>\n

The Turkish government accuses the G\u00fclen movement of masterminding a failed coup in July 2016 and labels it as a terrorist organization. The movement strongly denies any involvement in the failed putsch or terrorist activity.<\/p>\n

According to court findings, Gashi submitted requests to Kosovo\u2019s Interior Ministry on March 23 and March 28, 2018, seeking the revocation of residence permits for five of the men and the rejection of another\u2019s pending application on the grounds that they posed a threat to national security, claims the court said were not substantiated under the KIA law.<\/p>\n

The operation triggered political turmoil in Kosovo. Then\u2013prime minister Ramush Haradinaj said the deportations had taken place without his knowledge, and Gashi was dismissed from his post shortly afterward.<\/p>\n

A report published by a Kosovo parliamentary commission in February 2019 had\u00a0found<\/a>\u00a0that 31 violations of laws and procedures took place during the deportation. Members of the parliamentary commission authoring the report\u00a0accused<\/a>\u00a0former president Hashim Thaci of being behind the incident.<\/p>\n

The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) concluded in September 2021 that the arrest, detention and forced transfer to Turkey of the teachers by Kosovar and Turkish state agents were arbitrary and in violation of international human rights norms and standards.<\/p>\n

The six Turkish nationals were later prosecuted in Turkey on terrorism-related charges. Turkish courts sentenced them to a total of more than 56 years in prison. Most received eight-year sentences, while Erdem, director of the \u201cGulistan\u201d educational institution in Kosovo, was sentenced to 15 years, Koha.net reported.<\/p>\n

The \u201cMehmet Akif\u201d schools in Kosovo are operated by the Gulistan Educational Institution, which runs kindergartens, preschools, primary and secondary schools across the country.<\/p>\n

Over the last decade Turkish Islamic scholar G\u00fclen, who died in 2024, and his movement, which in the past had been praised by the Turkish government for their activities in education and inter-religious and intercultural dialogue, have faced various accusations from the government, including masterminding corruption investigations in 2013 and a coup attempt in July 2016.<\/p>\n

The Turkish government labeled G\u00fclen and his movement as \u201cterrorists\u201d in May 2016.<\/p>\n

G\u00fclen and his followers have strongly denied any involvement in the coup or any terrorist activities but have been the subject of a harsh crackdown for a decade, which intensified in the aftermath of the abortive putsch.<\/p>\n

In the original 2023 ruling, two other senior officials tried along with Gashi were acquitted.<\/p>\n

The Appeals Court later ordered a retrial limited to the charge concerning Gashi. Tuesday\u2019s decision marks the second time the court has found the former intelligence chief criminally responsible for the 2018 deportations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Kosovo court has again sentenced former intelligence chief Driton Gashi to more than four years in prison…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28577,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[83],"tags":[18037,11868,18038,18039,18040,5197,18041,18042,131,132,18043],"class_list":["post-28576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-stockholm","tag-cihan-ozkan","tag-deportation","tag-driton-gashi","tag-hasan-huseyin-gunakan","tag-kahraman-demirez","tag-kosovo","tag-mustafa-erdem","tag-osman-karakaya","tag-stockholm","tag-sweden","tag-yusuf-karabina"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}