UN Committee: Switzerland Shouldn’t Deport Turkish Couple to Kosovo

The UN Committee Against Torture said in a decision that the Swiss government should not deport a Turkish couple who are alleged members of exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen's network to Kosovo because "they would face a real risk of being forcibly transferred to and subjected to torture in Turkey".

The couple, who worked in Gulen-affiliated schools in Kosovo as teachers for years, applied for asylum in Switzerland in 2020 but their request was rejected by the Swiss authorities and it was decided that they should be deported to Kosovo.

But the UN committee said in its decision, which has been seen by BIRN, that under the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Switzerland has an obligation to refrain from forcibly returning the couple to Kosovo.

Turkey regards Gulen's network as a terrorist organisation and has been actively seeking the arrest of its members at home and abroad.

Ali Yildiz, the couple's lawyer who represented them at the UN committee, said Kosovo is not a safe country for Gulenists and the Swiss government breached the UN Convention Against Torture by deciding to deport them to Kosovo.

"The committee, which has already issued an interim measure to prevent deportations of the complainants, concluded that the Swiss authorities erred in their decisions," Yildiz told BIRN.

Six Turkish nationals affiliated with Gulen's network in Kosovo were deported to Turkey in 2018. The controversial deportations were condemned by rights groups and caused a political crisis in Kosovo.

Kosovo's Ministry of Justice insisted however that "there have never been such extraditions from the Republic of Kosovo to the Republic of Turkey". It argued that the Turks in 2018 were...