One of the seven Turkish citizens who were expelled from Moldova last year at the request of the official Ankara was sentenced to seven years and a half in jail for acts of terrorism on July 18, the electronic publication Balkan Insight reported, being quoted by the press in Moldova.

RFE/RL’s Moldovan Service was quoted by IPN as saying that the convicted teacher is Riza Dogan, who had lived in Moldova since 1993. He has children born in Moldova and, as the other Turkish teachers, asked for political asylum in Moldova before being expelled. Dogan managed the branch of Orizont Lyceum in Durlești town, which forms part of a network of education institutions financed by the movement of the exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen.

The Turkish press reported that of the seven Turkish teachers expelled from Moldova, Dogan is the fourth one who was convicted in Turkey.

The seven foreigners, who worked as teachers and managers at Orizont Lyceums in Moldova, were declared undesirable and expelled on September 6, 2018. The Security and Intelligence Service said then the seven were suspected of having links with an Islamic group that allegedly performs illegal activities in a number of states. The families of the teachers and colleagues of theirs mounted multiple protests, demanding that these should be returned.

On June 11 this year, the ECHR decided that Moldova violated the rights of the seven Turkish teachers when deporting them to Turkey.