London, Thursday, 11 August 2022
In the first case since Turkey sought many extraditions in exchange for allowing Stockholm to formally seek for NATO membership, the Swedish government has agreed to extradite a man to Turkey who is wanted for fraud, the government of Sweden announced on Thursday.
After weeks of difficult negotiations in which Ankara accused the two Nordic nations of harbouring what it claims are militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, NATO partner Turkey removed its veto over Finland and Sweden's application to join the Western alliance in June (PKK).
Turkey provided Sweden with a list of individuals it sought to extradite as part of the agreement, but has since expressed disappointment at the lack of progress.
The 30-year-old guy would be the first extradition to Turkey after the agreement was reached.
"This is a typical everyday occurrence. The subject in question was found guilty of fraud offences in Turkey in 2013 and 2016, according to Minister of Justice Morgan Johansson's text message to Reuters.
He claimed that the Supreme Court has "considered the matter as usual and found that there are no barriers to extradition."
A representative for the Ministry of Justice declined to confirm whether the individual was on Turkey's list of those it wants extradited or to make any more comments on the situation.
According to Swedish television SVT, who broke the news of the extradition first, the guy was sentenced to 14 years in jail in Turkey on multiple counts of bank card fraud.
The man, who has been held in Sweden since last year, claims that his conviction was erroneously handed down because he converted to Christianity, declined to serve in the military, and had Kurdish ancestry, according to SVT.
(Research and edit by: The Decision Maker – International Relations editors)
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