Bosnia-Herzegovina court rules not to hand Keskin over to Turkey

A court in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital Sarajevo has overturned a decision to deport Turkish citizen Fatih Keskin, who faces prosecution in his country for opposing President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government.

Nedim Ademovic and Senka Nozica, Keskin’s lawyers, confirmed in a statement on Monday they received the ruling against an earlier decision by the foreign affairs office and the security ministry to revoke their client’s residence permit.

Keskin was detained by police and placed under constant surveillance at the immigration centre near Sarajevo.

An intelligence assessment by Bosnia’s Intelligence and Security Agency (OSA) earlier declared Keskin a threat to national security, national news agency HINA reported.

But the court could not obtain the OSA document to find out what exactly he was accused of.

According to the klix.ba news portal, Keskin left the immigration centre late on Monday after nearly two weeks in detention.

He said he did not know what kind of threat he posed to Bosnia’s national security and would consider seeking redress after speaking with his lawyers.

Gulen ‘terrorists’

Keskin is the principal of Richmond Park College High School, based in the Bosnian city of Bihac. He has lived in Bosnia for almost two decades with his family.

Following his arrest, Turkish media reports linked him to Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric based in the United States who is seen as a leader of a “terrorist organisation” seeking to overthrow Erdogan’s government.

During a visit to Bosnia this year, Erdogan asked Sarajevo to extradite Turkish nationals he considers opponents of his government.

A court previously ruled in several cases that such requests could not be met because no international body has declared Gulen’s movement a “terrorist” group, HINA reported.