Even in the retrial, the former head of the KIA, Driton Gashi, does not admit guilt

Driton Gashi, accused of abuse of official position or authority, is back in the dock at the Pristina Court.

In the Wednesday session, on 12.02.2025, in the retrial, the accused Driton Gashi declared that he considers himself innocent of the charges of the Special Prosecution against him.

"Do you understand the indictment?" Judge Violeta Namani Hajra asked.

"Yes. As I have stated before," replied the accused Driton Gashi.

The Court of Appeals has remanded this case for retrial only with regard to point I of the disposition against the accused Driton Gashi for "abuse of official position or authority", who was found guilty by the Court of Pristina. While it has confirmed the acquittal of the other two accused, Valon Krasniqi and Rrahman Sylejmani.

Driton Gashi was sentenced on 19.07.2023 to 4 years and 8 months in prison, as well as an additional sentence of being banned from holding public office for 4 years after serving the sentence.

With the consent of the parties to the proceedings, the indictment was considered read, and the session continued with the parties' opening statements.

Prosecutor Habibe Salihu, in her opening statement, said that she stands by the opening statements she had given in the initial hearing.

"Today we were informed that the injured parties themselves will be present, from whom we were also informed that they have completed the sentence that was reviewed by the Turkish authorities and are now free, have entered the Republic of Kosovo legally, have a legal residence permit. I propose that 4 of these injured parties who are present here today be heard as witnesses and injured parties during this process. Perhaps by the end of this review, others will have the opportunity to join as well," said Habibe Salihu.

Likewise, the representative of the injured party said that he stands by the introductory remarks given earlier.

"We stand by the introductory remarks given in the preliminary hearing, we add the fact that the very presence of the injured parties here today and that they have entered the Republic of Kosovo and live freely clearly proves that we are not dealing with a violation of national security by them" - said the representative of the injured party, Urim Vokshi.

Meanwhile, the defense attorney for the accused Driton Gashi, lawyer Florent Latifaj, said that when this trial first began, I said in my opening statement that we will be remembered as a country, as a state, as a prosecutor, as lawyers, for the shame we have caused in this matter.

"It has reached that level, that is, the shame in this matter is evidenced by the fact that it is being proposed to hear the deported persons as witnesses to tell us about the fact - the deportation procedure when the persons have been acquitted of the charges. The persons who were responsible for their deportation have been acquitted of the charges by a final judgment and now they are calling these people to testify against us," said lawyer Florent Latifaj.

In this session, Prosecutor Salihu proposed that the testimonies of witnesses in previous sessions be read, while regarding witness Shkelzen Sopjani, she proposed that he be summoned again and heard in his capacity as a witness.

The presiding judge, Violeta Namani-Hajra, announced that they will decide on these proposals outside the session.

The trial panel in this criminal case is composed of Violeta Namani Hajra (presiding judge), Ngadhnjim Arrni and Arben Hoti – members.

PROSECUTOR'S FILE

According to the indictment of the Special Prosecution, the three officials of the Kosovo Intelligence Agency (KIA) are accused of abusing their official position or authority and unlawfully depriving six Turkish citizens of their liberty in 2018.

According to the indictment, on the morning of March 29, 2018, under completely mysterious circumstances Cihan Ozkan, Kahraman Demirez, Hasan Husein Gunakan, Mustafa Erdem, Osman Karakaya and Jusuf Karabina were arrested and then deported to Turkey.

The arrest of six Turkish citizens was carried out by Kosovo institutions, while the operation to deport them was assessed by experts in the field as being accompanied by a "mountain of legal violations."

Although wrongly deported, on January 28, 2020, according to Turkish media reports, Gunakan was sentenced to over 8 years in prison by the Istanbul Court.

The six Turkish citizens are accused of their links to Fetullah Gulen, the man whom Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says is behind the failed 2016 coup. Meanwhile, Fetullah Gulen died on October 20, 2024.

The Kosovo Intelligence Agency's justification for the operation to expel the six Turkish citizens was that they posed a 'risk to national security'.

This case was even reported by a UN working group, which considered the deportation of Turkish citizens a flagrant violation of human rights, reports Kallxo.