Kosovo Indicts Ex-Intelligence Chief Over Deportation of ‘Gulenists’

Kosovo's Special Prosecution has confirmed to BIRN that an indictment has been filed against three individuals in connection with the highly controversial deportation of six Turkish nationals to Turkey on March 29, 2018.

BIRN has learned that the three individuals are Driton Gashi, former head of the Kosovo Intelligence Agency, Valon Krasniqi, director of the Department of Citizenship and Migration at the Interior Ministry, and Rrahman Sylejmani, head of the Directorate of Migration and Foreigners in the Kosovo Border Police.

Gashi and Krasniqi are both accused of "abuse of official position or authority", while Sylejmani is accused of both "abuse of official position or authority" and "illegal deprivation of liberty."

Krasniqi told BIRN that he has been made aware of an indictment but has not officially received it. Sylejmani said he had not been informed about an indictment being filed against him, but was aware that he was being investigated.

Sylejmani added that both he and the Kosovo Border Police had acted in accordance with the law during the deportation process, stating that the institution was the third link in the chain following the Intelligence Agency and the Ministry of the Interior. "We performed procedures in accordance with the law," he told BIRN. "We'll face this in court, there is no problem."

BIRN also contacted former head of the Intelligence Agency, Driton Gashi, but he was not available for comment at the time of publication.

Gashi was dismissed from his post following the arrest and extradition of the six Turkish citizens in March 2018. The then prime minister, Ramush Haradinaj, claimed the incident had happened without his knowledge.

A report published by a Kosovo parliamentary commission in...

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