Switzerland gets Kosovar killer extradited
A man who has confessed to killing his daughter’s teacher at a St Gallen school has been extradited from Kosovo to Switzerland.
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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