Kosovo ‘Knowingly’ Deported Wrong Man to Turkey: Report

Photo: AP/Beta.

The report is based on the statements of officials involved in the controversial operation to deport six Turkish nationals wanted for alleged links to what Ankara claims is a 'terrorist movement' led by the exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen.

It reveals how the Kosovo authorities sent the wrong man to Turkey, despite having "full knowledge" of the mistake.

Hasan Huseyin Gunakan's photograph was the only 'document' through which Kosovo Police established his identity before taking him to Pristina airport for deportation on March 29, 2018, mistaking him for the other Turkish national, Hasan Hysein Demir.

The report shows that Gunakan was one of three Turkish professors arrested in Gjakova/Djakovica in March 2018 upon Ankara's request. Only one of them had identification documents.

Based on the testimony of the director of the Directorate of Migration and Foreigners of the Border Police, Rrahman Sylejmani, which is published in the report, problems arose in identifying Gunkan due to the fact that in the material that the Kosovo Intelligence Agency, AKI gave to the police, there were two photographs of two people with similar names.

The first person to ask for clarification about this was the head of the Sector for Control of Foreigners in the Directorate of Migration and Foreigners of the Border Police, Hamit Rukiqi.

But Rukiqi was ordered by an AKI officer to detain "whoever meets the photo identification", the report says.

Sylejmani told the parliamentary committee investigating the deportations that at the airport, Gunakan attempted to tell the officials involved he was not the person they wanted.

"I said is this your photo, he said yes. The photo is mine but these aren't my personal data," Sylejmani is...