terrorism
Sweden: Kurd convicted of attempted PKK financing
Pkk flag at a demonstration (symbolic image). The convict is said to have tried to raise money for the PKK. photo
© picture alliance / dpa
A Swedish court has sentenced a Kurd to prison for attempted terrorist financing, among other things. On the same day, negotiations are held in Brussels on the Turkish NATO blockade.
On the day of new talks to resolve the NATO dispute with Turkey, a Kurdish man is in Sweden convicted of trying to raise money for the PKK. The accused, originally from Turkey, was sentenced to four and a half years in prison for attempted aggravated extortion, serious weapons offenses and attempted terrorist financing, the Stockholm District Court announced. The man is also to be permanently expelled from Sweden.
The defendant was accused of trying to force a Kurdish businessman in Stockholm at gunpoint to hand over money to the banned Kurdish Workers’ Party PKK. Presiding judge Måns Wigén said the attempted blackmail was part of a broader process in which the PKK in Europe was attempting to collect money, including through blackmail. The judgment can be appealed to a higher authority.
At the invitation of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, high-ranking representatives from Sweden, Turkey and Finland want to meet in Brussels today to discuss the Turkish blockade of Sweden’s NATO accession. Turkey has been blocking the country’s admission for a long time, citing what it considers Sweden’s inadequate action against “terrorist organizations” – it is primarily concerned with the PKK. In Sweden, new terrorism laws came into force at the beginning of June, making it a criminal offense to participate in, finance or otherwise support a terrorist organization.
As Wigén said at a press conference, to his knowledge the verdict is the first case in which a Swedish court has classified the PKK as a terrorist organization. Sweden’s NATO application had no influence on the court’s decision, he stressed.