Sweden must extradite man wanted by Turkey
The Swedish government has agreed to extradite a Turkish citizen with Kurdish roots wanted for credit card fraud to Turkey on Thursday (12 August).
According to a report from SVT, the 35-year-old’s extradition is part of the conditions that prompted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to lift his veto on Sweden’s NATO membership, but the Swedish Foreign Ministry has so far declined to comment on whether the man is on the list of “73 terrorists “.
Join EUobserver today
Become an expert on Europe
Get instant access to all articles – and 20 years of archives. 14 day free trial.
… or subscribe as a group
In late June, Erdoğan said he would no longer oppose Sweden and Finland joining the other 30 NATO members if the two countries agreed to extradite 73 “terrorists”, many of them Kurds, to Turkey.
He also accused both countries of harboring Kurdish militants linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been declared a terrorist organization in Turkey since 1993.
After a long diplomatic standoff, Sweden and Finland agreed to Turkish demands, knowing that the other NATO member states supported their candidacy.
But despite all that, Swedish Justice Minister Morgan Johansson called the new extradition “a routine matter,” in a text message to the Reuters news agency.
“The person in question is a Turkish citizen and convicted of fraud offenses in Turkey in 2013 and 2016,” she said.
The state broadcaster reported that Turkey submitted the extradition request in 2021.
The man has been sentenced to 14 years in prison in Turkey for credit card fraud, allegedly committed in 2013 and 2016.
The man who has been detained in Sweden since last year denied having committed the crime in the Supreme Court and claimed to have been persecuted because he is a convert to Christianity, refused to do military service and has Kurdish roots.