The Swedish government announced Thursday that it has decided to extradite a man to Turkey who is wanted for fraud, a move that comes after Sweden and Finland signed a deal with Ankara to cooperate on extradition to join NATO.
After signing the deal and lifting its objection to the Nordic nations joining NATO, Turkey submitted a list of dozens of suspected “terrorists” that it wants to be extradited, including suspected members of the Kurdish militant group PKK.
But the man Sweden announced its extraditing does not appear to be linked to the PKK, although he was on the list of names Turkey handed to Stockholm, according to the Swedish broadcaster SVT. The man, a Turkish citizen, had been sentenced to 14 years in prison in Turkey for credit card fraud but has been detained in Sweden for the past year.
The Turkish man argued to the Swedish Supreme Court that he was wrongfully convicted in Turkey because he converted to Christianity, refused military service, and has Kurdish heritage. But the Supreme Court decided to go through with the extradition.
“This is a normal, routine matter … The supreme court has examined the issue, as usual, and concluded that there are no obstacles to extradition,” said Swedish Justice Minister Morgan Johansson.
Turkey has been frustrated with the lack of progress on extradition and has warned the Turkish Parliament could still block Sweden and Finland from joining NATO. It’s not yet clear if the Swedish government will agree to extradite suspected PKK members as it is under intense domestic pressure not to do so.
If there was any doubt that todays Sweden is no longer the progressive nation that gave us Olof Palme….What a tawdry deal…
Nothing could show their true soul better than their treatment of the Assange “rape” case. … Bergman and troop, idols of my eternal summer, are dead.
Really great comment. Evokes a twinge of senimentality in my.soul from comradeship with antiwar Europeans during my Vietnam war exile days & especially nights…… Lights out and we never knew who or what traspired after the light’s were off.
Yes, nice to hear. But the revolution never came.
Turkey will not be fooled by this One Man Extradition…!
Sweden is now just another right wing sewer.
What strange political undercurrent and intrigues could have turned Sweedes against him, and, by equal reaction in support of the deadly Attack on Iraq based on WMD lies & yellow cake fixes and forgeries. Or were they just too overoccupied with hedonistic excesses to connect the dots.
What a mess. It seems obvious to me that Sweden never intended to keep the bargain it struck with Turkey. But, these kinds of gestures are unlikely to deceive Erdoğan. Ironically, blocking Sweden’s entry into NATO is probably in Sweden’s best interests.
Perhaps one day, a genuine peacemaker will reunite Kurdistan without alienating Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Armenia. But I’m not holding my breath.
I wouldn’t believe what Sweden promised,and Erdogan shouldn’t believe too.
ISIS Terrorist bad,
PKK YPG Terrorist Goody,good one
According Europe.
That’s reality 😊
Sweden can choose between
1. persecuting Kurds to join an evil Empire alliance
or
2. stay NEUTRAL and actually respect human rights.
Instead, it’ll try to play Turkey and try to do both. I hope Turkey have some backbone and block them.
Ah, the sacrificial lamb. And it didn’t work.
So Sweden and Finland are willing to extradite their citizens to join NATO? A new low for the Scandinavian countries.
read the article, the man is not a Swedish but a Turkish citizen and wanted for fraud and has apparently been detained in Sweden for longer time than the war in Ukraine has been going on, so already in some sort of trouble with the Swedish authorities.
I wouldn’t have thought that ‘extradition’ would be Sweden’s cup of tea…
I think I’m going off Swedish Meatballs (one of my favs.)…