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By:
Donisa Fazliu
- December 11, 2025 12:48
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The final arguments were held on Thursday in the retrial of the so-called “Gülenists” case, in which former AKI chief Driton Gashi is accused of illegally deporting six Turkish citizens. The defendant and his lawyer insisted that the deportation was necessary because, according to them, the six Turks attempted to infiltrate various institutions.
Turkish citizen Hasan Huseyin Gunakan said on Thursday that there are reports that prove he was wrongly deported from Kosovo to Turkey in 2018.
In Thursday's court session, he gave the final word in the process in which the former head of the Kosovo Intelligence Agency (KIA), Driton Gashi, is being retried as an accused in the "Gülenists" case.
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Letter to the Reader — Why We're Asking for Your Support ContributeGunakan has requested that this matter be resolved as soon as possible.
"I support the final word of my lawyers. I do not accept any accusation. I was wrongly sent to Turkey and the reports exist. I am asking for a quick way, because the procedure is going very slowly," he stressed during the hearing.
In this lawsuit, the former head of the AKI is accused of being directly involved in the illegal deportation of six Turkish citizens in March 2018: Mustafa Erdem, Yusuf Karabina, Hasan Huseyn-Gunakan, Cihan Ozkan, Osman Karakaya and Kahraman Demirez, who subsequently faced legal proceedings in Turkey.
The injured party's lawyer, Leutrim Syla, said that there are reports that the accused Driton Gashi has abused his official position, including by dealing with the issue of transporting six Turkish citizens to Turkey.
"It has been proven that nothing was done without the supervision of Driton Gashi. Driton Gashi dealt exclusively with the issue of travel, namely the transportation of the injured parties from the Republic of Kosovo to the Republic of Turkey. It has been proven that, after receiving the alleged information about the threat to national security from the injured parties, he did not conduct any prior verification of that information at all," said lawyer Syla.
This claim has been disputed by the defense of the accused Gashi. His lawyer, Florent Latifaj, has emphasized that Turkish citizens have had influence in the most important institutions of Kosovo.
"They have attempted to infiltrate people into the police, court, prosecution, KIA, KSF structures. They have recruited informants in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. They have done what they have not done, according to the KIA report. So, why don't they come, return here, when according to the KIA report they finance most of the media in Kosovo," said Latifaj.
This claim of the lawyer was supported by the accused Driton Gashi.
"Honorable Judge, I support my lawyer, I have nothing to add," he said.
Following their deportation, six Turkish citizens were put on trial in Turkey, accused of being members of the "Feto" organization, which has been declared a terrorist organization in this country.
Regarding the experiences during their stay in Turkish prisons, the injured party's lawyer, Syla, said that the Turkish citizens have also confessed before the trial panel in Pristina.
"Driton Gashi has compiled a report declaring 6 Turkish citizens dangerous to national security, that these 6 Turkish citizens were sent to Turkey, were held in prison, came here and testified to us, after they were held in prison, what they took there and some other things that were reserved, because they did not want to reveal them here with us either," said Syla.
The other lawyer for the injured party, Urim Vokshi, emphasized that Turkey has brought a special plane to Kosovo to pick up Turkish citizens.
"These Turkish citizens have been politically persecuted by Turkey, that's a fact. We have the report of the Kosovo Ombudsman, where the Turkish state has requested extradition of two of them. The Turkish state, in order to fulfill its interests, has also brought Turkish intelligence, on a special plane, and has taken these people in violation of the provisions that regulate the departure of foreign citizens from the Republic of Kosovo," said Vokshi.
Their expulsion in 2018 sparked major reactions in Kosovo and beyond and has been assessed as a violation of human rights.
In this case, Driton Gashi was sentenced in 2023 to four years and eight months in prison, but at the end of last year, the Court of Appeals returned the case for retrial regarding point 1 of the enacting clause and confirmed the acquittal of the other two defendants. The former director of the Department for Citizenship, Asylum and Migration at the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), Valon Ramadani, and the former director of the Directorate for Migration and Foreigners within the Border Police, Rrahman Sylejmani, were acquitted of the indictment at that time.
Based on the indictment filed by the Special Prosecution on February 24, 2021, Gashi, in the case of the deportation of 6 Turkish citizens, abused his official position in the manner in which he recommended to the Department of Citizenship, Asylum and Migration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs the revocation of the residence permits for Ozkan, Karabinan, Demirez, Hyseyn-Demir and Erden, as well as the refusal to grant a permit for Karakoyan, under the justification that they pose a threat to national security.