Sweden announced today, Thursday, that it will hand over a Turkish citizen claimed by Ankara, but rejected another extradition request, while Turkey stresses that a response to deportation requests is a necessary condition for ratifying the accession of the Scandinavian country to the North Atlantic Organization. contracts. (NATO).
The Swedish justice ministry said it had accepted the extradition of Ömer Altun, a 29-year-old Turkish citizen who was sentenced by a Turkish court to 15 years in prison last year for “the Swedish equivalent of fraud.”
But the extradition was only accepted on the condition that Altun be granted a new trial upon his return to Turkey.
The decision of the Swedish Ministry of Justice on March 30 came after the Swedish Supreme Court approved the extradition.
“The government shares the opinion of the Supreme Court that nothing prevents the extradition of Umar Altun to Turkey,” the Ministry of Justice said.
On the other hand, the government rejected an extradition request for Mehmet Zakir Karael, a 51-year-old Swede whom Ankara suspects of being a member of an “armed terrorist organization,” according to the Swedish Ministry of Justice.
The ministry explained that according to the law, “a citizen of Sweden cannot be extradited.”
Last year, Sweden handed over at least two Turkish citizens to Ankara and denied several other requests, including an extradition request for the former editor-in-chief of the Zaman daily newspaper, whom Turkey accuses of being involved in a 2016 coup attempt.
After the start of the Russian military operation in Ukraine, Sweden and Finland abandoned their longstanding policy of neutrality and applied to join NATO.
After several months of delay, Turkey ratified Finland’s membership last month, allowing it to become a full member of NATO this week.
