The list of citizens Ankara is asking to be extradited from Stockholm has more than doubled.
Turkey has increased the list of people it needs to extradite from Sweden. Swedish media Sveriges Radio reported this on Thursday, December 22.
The publication studied the names of immigrants from Turkey published in the Turkish media, which Ankara demands from Stockholm to be forcibly returned to their homeland.
Initially, it was about 33 citizens subject to extradition. The list has now expanded to include 42 more individuals.
Most of these citizens have been accused of involvement in the activities of organizations considered terrorist in Turkey. Specifically, 16 people from the list were accused of links to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, 12 – to the Gülen movement, 7 – to various leftist groups, and only seven were charged with criminal offenses.
The question of the unexpected return of Turkish citizens to their homeland has become more acute in connection with the filing of applications by Sweden and Finland to join NATO. Ankara said it would grant their membership on the condition that they hand over to it criminals hiding in their territories.
On December 19, Sweden’s Supreme Court halted the extradition from the kingdom at Ankara’s request of an exiled journalist due to the possibility of prosecution in his home country for his political views. Before that, a similar decision was made by the court regarding two other people who received refugee status in Sweden.
The Supreme Court ruling means that the government, which must ultimately decide the matter, cannot grant the extradition request.
As you know, Sweden and Finland applied for NATO membership on May 18. Turkey immediately blocked this process – it demanded that these countries declare Kurdish organizations terrorist, extradite people accused of terrorism or participation in the attempted coup in the country in 2016, and lift the ban on the supply of arms to Ankara.
Later, on June 28, talks were held in Madrid between Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, Finnish President Sauli Niinistö, then Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, and Alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. The parties signed a memorandum that would allow Stockholm and Helsinki to join NATO.
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Source: korrespondent
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.