First Swedish extradition falls short of demands: Ankara

ANKARA

Türkiye’s justice minister on Aug. 18 said Sweden’s pledge to extradite a Turkish convict fell far short of Stockholm’s commitments under a deal paving the way for its NATO membership bid.

NATO member Türkiye is threatening to freeze Sweden’s attempts to join the Western defense alliance unless it extradi-tes dozens of people Ankara accuses of “terrorism.”

A non-binding deal Sweden and fellow NATO aspirant Finland signed with Türkiye in June commits them to “expeditiously and thoroughly” examine Ankara’s requests for suspects linked to FETÖ and PKK.

The Swedish government said earlier this month that it would extradite Okan Kale, a man convicted of credit card fraud who appeared on a list of people sought by Ankara published by Turkish media.

Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ told daily Milliyet that Sweden needed to do far more to win Türkiye’s trust.

“If they think that by extraditing ordinary criminals to Türkiye they will make us believe that they have fulfilled their promises, they are wrong,” Bozdağ said in the first government response to the extradition decision.

“Nobody should test Türkiye,” he warned.

Turkish leader himself has warned that he will not submit the two countries’ applications for ratification in parliament unless they comply with his extradition demands in full.

Erdoğan said in July that Sweden had made a “promise” to extradite “73 terrorists.”

The Turkish justice ministry in June formally requested the extradition of 21 suspects from Sweden and 12 from Finland.
Sweden and Finland ended decades of military neutrality and decided to try and join NATO in response to Russia’s February invasion of Ukraine.

Their bids have already been ratified by the United States and more than half of the 30 members of NATO.
Each application must win unanimous consent from member states.

Sweden and Finland are due to hold their first formal consultations with Turkey about the dispute on Aug. 26.
The Swedish foreign ministry yesterday denied a local media report saying that the meeting will be held in Stockholm.

No official venue for the talks has been set.