Montenegrin Justice Minister has Final Say on ‘Gulenist’ Extradition

The Justice Minister of Montenegro must decide whether to extradite an alleged supporter of the exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulenist to Turkey, after the Appeal Court in Podgorica on Monday rejected his appeal against the earlier ruling of a local court.

The Higher Court in Bijelo Polje, where Harun Ayvaz is currently in prison, ruled for a second time in October to extradite him to Turkey.

"The Appeal Court rejected our appeal on Monday. Now, we are awaiting the decision of the Ministry of Justice. Ayvaz faces a big risk of extradition," Dalibor Tomovic, the lawyer for Ayvaz, told BIRN.

"I have still some hope about the minister's decision since he previously represented Montenegro to the European Court of Human Rights, ECHR, and knows such cases very well," Tomovic argued.

"I have also applied the Constitutional Court, but as I don't have any hope [about that], I directly went to the ECHR about the new situation and am awaiting its reaction - whether to adopt or reject my request for interim measures," Tomovic added.

"The ministry should wait … to include the ECHR decision, the result of Ayvaz's asylum application and his right to sue the local court, but since this is very political motivated case he could be extradited to Turkey any moment, just like what happened in Serbia with the extradition of a Kurdish politician," he continued.

The Appeal Court ruling, which BIRN has seen, accepted Turkey's argument that Ayvaz needed to be extradited to face terrorism charges.

According to his wife, Ayvaz is accused of having a subscription to the newspaper of the Gulen movement, Zaman, of using the Bylock application on his phone, which a Turkish court has ruled is proof of links with the Gulen movement, and of...