The former Security and Intelligence Service director, Vasile Botnari, is the only one responsible for the extradition of the Turkish teachers from Moldova. General Prosecutor, Alexandr Stoianoglo claimed that the accused pleaded guilty. The case in which Botnari is accused of abuse of power was sent to court. 

According to the General Prosecutor’s Office, the former deputy directors of the Security and Intelligence Service and the director of the Bureau of Migration and Asylum  – Olga Poalelungi were withdrawn from criminal prosecution. On February 4, Olga Poalelungi was reappointed as head of the Bureau of Migration and Asylum.

Seven Turkish teachers who were living and working in Moldova were extradited by Moldovan authorities to Turkey under suspicious circumstances, in September 2018. After the ACUM- Socialist Party coalition took the power the General Prosecutor’s Office announced about opening a criminal case in August 2019. Last week the Prosecutor’s identified the only person responsible for the whole operation. 

During the criminal investigation process, the prosecutors established that the procedure on the extradition of the seven Turkish teachers was executed arbitrarily by the Security and Intelligence Service, without informing the Bureau for Migration and Asylum on the measures applied for the teachers’ extradition. 

According to the evidence, the Security Service has assumed all actions related to the expulsion and the ones preceding this procedure, in the absence of written notification from the Bureau for Migration and Asylum or based on a collaboration agreement in this regard. 

However, the Bureau for Migration and Asylum is the only competent authority to organize and undertake the necessary activities in what concerns the extradition of foreign citizens from the country’s territory. 

According to the prosecutors, the entire operation was ordered, coordinated and managed exclusively by the accused, who, at that time, was the former director of the Security and Intelligence Service and his deputies have executed his orders and commands, not being aware that they are illegal, being assured that everything that is carried out is perfectly legal.  

Under these circumstances, through the prosecution ordinance dated two weeks back, the former deputy director of the Security and Intelligence Service and the Bureau for Migration and Asylum director were withdrawn from criminal prosecution and the former Security and Intelligence Service director was charged with criminal offenses and on February 4, brought before justice. 

At the stage of criminal prosecution, the accused has collaborated during the inquiry and is being under non-custodial investigation.  

For this crime, the legislation foresees up to six years of imprisonment, being deprived of the right to hold certain public office positions or to exercise specific activities for a period of five to ten years. 

Seven Turkish citizens were expulsed early morning on September 6, 2018, from Moldova. 

They were detained when leaving their homes to go to work and were sent to Turkey, on a previously military airport close to Istanbul. 

The Security and Intelligence Service declared at that time that the seven Turkish citizens had ties to an Islamic group that is suspected of carrying out illegal activities in more countries. 

All seven teachers were declared undesirable persons in Moldova through a decision of the Bureau for Migration and Asylum signed on September 5, 2018, by its director Olga Poalelungi. 

On June 11, 2019, the European Court of Human Rights issued a decision in which it declares that Moldova has infringed the right to freedom and security and the right to respect for private and family life of the Turkish citizens. 

The lawyer that took the case to the ECtHR on behalf of the Turkish citizens declared that „even in front of the European Court of Human Rights, the government agent, the Moldovan state did not present any evidence that the complainants constitute or have constituted a danger for the security and public order of Moldova”. 

On July 5, the Parliament Committee on National Security, Defense, and Public Order received from the Security and Intelligence Service a comprehensive report on how the Turkish teachers were declared undesirable persons. The report is not publicly available. 

At the beginning of August, the Prosecution Office announced that a criminal case on the expulsion of the Turkish teachers was opened.  

• Moldova’s Extradition of Turkish Citizens: One Year Later