The government in Ankara accuses two Turks in Sweden of membership in the Gülen movement and is demanding extradition. But the highest court in Stockholm blocks that. Is there a new dispute about the intended NATO membership?
In Sweden, the highest court sees legal obstacles to the extradition of two Turks who are accused of terrorism in their homeland. The decision could make Sweden’s NATO accession more difficult again after Turkey dropped its resistance just a few days ago.
The allegations that the two accused belong to the movement of the cleric Fethullah Gülen are not sufficiently substantiated, the court said. The Turkish government blames the Gülen movement for the 2016 coup attempt and classifies it as a terrorist organization.
Court: Both are threatened with persecution in Turkey
Downloading and using an application for mobile devices used by the members of the movement is not enough. An extradition must be based on actions that also constitute a criminal offense in Sweden.
Another obstacle is that both people are threatened with persecution in Turkey. However, the government in Stockholm has the last word on extradition requests. There was initially no comment from her, nor from the Turkish government.
Turkey had blocked Sweden’s accession to NATO for months over allegations that the Nordic country was not cooperating sufficiently in the fight against extremists such as separatists from the Kurdish Workers’ Party PKK and members of the Gülen movement.
Erdogan expects concrete steps from Sweden
It was only on Monday that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave up his veto after another attempt at mediation by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on the eve of the military alliance summit in Lithuania.
At the NATO meeting, Erdogan announced that he would submit Sweden’s application for membership to parliament for ratification in the autumn. But he expects concrete steps against terrorism from Sweden.