The Basic Court of Prishtina on Tuesday sentenced Driton Gashi, former chief of Kosovo’s Intelligence Agency, KIA, to four years and eight months in prison for the controversial deportation of six alleged “Gulenists” to Turkey in March 2018.

This is the second time the court has ordered such a sentence for Gashi for the deportations of the alleged supporters of cleric Fethullah Gulen, who was accused by the Turkish government of attempting a coup. The appeals court overturned the original May 2023 verdict in the Gashi trial, ordering a retrial.

Gashi “exceeded his official competencies when he illegally deported Turkish nationals who had residency and work permits in Kosovo,” Judge Violeta Namani Hajra said, announcing the verdict.

“Through his actions, Gashi violated standard procedures and instruments of human rights… By deporting Turkish nationals, he has exposed them to a real danger of torture, physical mistreatment,” she added.

Gashi, who was not present for the verdict on Tuesday, was also banned from exercising public duties for four years after serving his jail sentence. The verdict can again be appealed.

Gashi was dismissed from his post following the 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 by a Kosovo parliamentary commission in February 2019 found that 31 breaches of laws and procedures took place during the deportation. Members of the commission accused former president Hashim Thaci of being behind the incident.

A number of the group extradited to Turkey were later handed heavy prison sentences for membership of an “armed terrorist group” owing to their links with Gulen’s movement, which Ankara refers to as the ‘Fethullah Terror Organisation’, FETO, and blames for a failed coup in 2016.

In January 2020, an Istanbul court sentenced one of the six, Hasan Hyesin Gunakan, to eight years and one month in prison.

The parliamentary commission report specifically cited Gunakan’s deportation as unlawful, stating that it violated the Kosovo constitution, administrative instructions and key principles of international human rights law.

Five of those arrested had worked at “Gulenist” educational institutions in Kosovo, including the Mehmet Akif high school and elementary schools in Prizren and Gjakova.

After the operation, the international watchdog Human Rights Watch deemed the arrest and deportation a callous disregard of human rights and the rule of law.