A man who has confessed to killing his daughter’s teacher at a St Gallen school has been extradited from Kosovo to Switzerland.
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Ded Gecaj arrived on Thursday and was taken straight to the St Gallen prosecutor’s office.
Gecaj is accused of killing teacher Paul Spirig in 1999. Afterwards he fled to his homeland of Kosovo, then still part of Serbia, where a court sentenced him to four years for manslaughter after he confessed to the crime. He was freed two years later.
Gecaj was re-arrested in May on the basis of a request from the St Gallen authorities who want to try him for murder rather than manslaughter, as well as on charges of sexually abusing his daughter.
The cooperation between the Switzerland and Kosovo is based on the each side’s domestic law, the Swiss Justice Office said.
They have set out in a memorandum the legal procedures for extraditing a Kosovo citizen in this specific case. The Kosovo high court authorised the extradition on August 16, but it was not until the justice ministry gave its approval on August 30 that Gecaj could be handed over.
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Kosovar murder suspect to be extradited
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Ded Gecaj is accused of killing his daughter’s teacher at a St Gallen school in 1999. Afterwards he fled to his homeland of Kosovo, where he was re-arrested on Monday. He confessed to the crime and in 2000 a court in Kosovo sentenced him to four years in prison for manslaughter. Two years later he…
Serbian court hands down four year sentence to killer of Swiss teacher
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The Swiss embassy in Belgrade announced on Friday that Ded Gecaj had been sentenced in his absence to four years by a Serbian court last December. The court ruled that Gecaj could only be held partially culpable for the killing of Paul Spirig, on the basis of several psychiatric evaluations. Gecaj shot his daughter’s teacher…
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President Pascal Couchepin said Switzerland would establish diplomatic relations with the breakaway Serbian province after it declared independence ten days ago. Couchepin said the government took the decision on Wednesday following consultations with two key parliamentary committees. He said the government welcomed a commitment by the authorities in Kosovo to protect ethnic minorities and accept…
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In the capital Pristina, as in the rest of the province, there is much evidence of the close relations between Kosovo and Switzerland. (Photos: Luigi Jorio)
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.