The Swedish government has agreed to extradite a Turkish citizen to Turkey. That reports the Swedish public broadcaster SVT. The man was convicted in Turkey for fraud. According to SVT, the extradition of the 35-year-old man is part of the terms against which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vetoed Sweden’s NATO membership.
In late June, Erdogan said he would no longer oppose Sweden and Finland’s accession to NATO if the two countries extradited “73 terrorists” to Turkey. Sweden and Finland agreed to this, in the knowledge that the other NATO member states have no objection to the candidacy. As far as we know, the man who is now being extradited is the first on the list.
SVT reports that the extradition request was submitted by Turkey in 2021. The man was sentenced in Turkey to 14 years in prison for credit card fraud, allegedly committed in 2013 and 2016. The Turkish man denied having committed the crime at the Swedish Supreme Court and claims to have been persecuted for religious reasons, among other things. He converted from Islam to Christianity and his mother is of Kurdish descent.
Swedish Justice Minister Morgan Johansson called the extradition “a routine matter”. According to the Financial Times Her ministry declined to comment on whether the man is on the list of “73 terrorists”.
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