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"She rented a house in Tirana after coming from France, she is a teacher" - What happened in the trial of the 32-year-old Turkish woman

2026-08-07 17:19:20Aktualitet SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX

"She rented a house in Tirana after coming from France, she is a

The Criminal Chamber Court in Tirana on Friday ordered the security measure of "prison arrest" for 32-year-old political activist Julide Yazici. She was arrested on August 4, 2026 in Rinas, while traveling from France to Albania, after it turned out that she was wanted by Interpol Ankara for extradition purposes.

Judge Kujtim Vranici accepted prosecutor Francesk Ganaj's request for a security measure, despite the defense's claims that they had secured a rented apartment and that the young woman could be left under "house arrest" security measure, as she did not pose a danger and had political asylum status in France, a country of the European Union.

“She is an intellectual. She has political asylum status in France and is not dangerous. We rented a house and requested house arrest, but the prosecution was afraid she might flee to France and requested that she be kept in prison,” said Yazici’s lawyer, Artan Shllaku. Shllaku said the decision would be appealed.

He added that Yazici had been to Albania a year ago to meet her family and had had no problems. According to him, she is a civil servant in France and teaches at an elementary school.

Julide Yazici is wanted by Turkish authorities to serve a remaining sentence of 3 years, 5 months and 22 days, out of a total sentence of 4 years in prison, on suspicion of providing logistical support and participating in a terrorist organization.

According to a decision of the National Court of Asylum, CNDA, in France, dated November 16, 2020, which BIRN has, Yazici has been continuously involved in political activism in Turkey and was a participant in the famous Gezi Park protests in 2013 against the government of the current President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. She has actively supported the former People’s Democratic Party, HDP, a left-wing political force that supported the Kurdish minority in Turkey and which later transformed into the “DEM Party”.

The French court ruling that granted asylum to Yazic states that she was arrested in January 2016 "for allowing a young woman she did not know, who had been introduced to her by a friend, to stay in her student room."

Justifying the recognition of asylum status, the French court cites in the document that “Ms. Yazici has a well-founded fear, within the meaning of the aforementioned provisions of the Geneva Convention, that she will be persecuted if she returns to her country because of her political activism,” and in Article 2 of the same decision it is sanctioned: “Ms. Julide Yazici is recognized as a refugee.”

Lawyer Shllaku told BIRN that the defense had presented the fact of political asylum from France in arguments, but the prosecution insisted that this part would be examined during the trial on the merits of the extradition request once the documents from Turkey arrive.

The French left-wing organization "Union pour la Reconstruction Communiste", URC, has reacted to this issue, stating that Yazici is its member. The organization emphasizes in a publication in X that "if Julide were to be extradited, she risks suffering torture and inhuman treatment."

The URC calls on “the Albanian authorities to reject any extradition request targeting Julide Yazic… and to fully respect their obligations deriving from the 1951 Geneva Convention, the European Convention on Human Rights and the principle of non-refoulement.” They demand her immediate release and the intervention of the French authorities to guarantee her protection as a political refugee.

Yazici's arrest comes at an interesting moment, after political forces in Turkey, including Erdogan's party and Kurdish representatives in parliament, reached an agreement that aims, among other things, for an amnesty for many of the convicted Kurds.

Yazici is not the first Turkish citizen and political activist to be arrested for extradition purposes in Albania. Previously, teachers and employees linked to the movement of the late Fetullah Gulen have been arrested for extradition purposes. Albania has controversially extradited Turkish citizens suspected of being linked to the Gulenist movement. On 1 January 2020, Albania deported teacher Harun Çelik, despite his calls for asylum. (BIRN)


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