Turkey seems to stubbornly stick to its handover demands as a condition for Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership. The requirements have been considered difficult for the rule of law.
16:08•Updated 17:40
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu criticizes the Swedish Supreme Court’s decision to block the extradition of the journalist demanded by Turkey.
The court decided yesterday that a journalist who was granted asylum in Sweden Bülent Keneş cannot be handed over. Turkey has made the extradition of dozens of people a condition for Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership.
According to Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu, this is a very negative turn. According to him, Turkey expects concrete actions from Sweden and Finland so that the countries’ NATO membership could be accepted.
– We don’t expect beautiful words, but concrete actions, Çavuşoğlu said according to the Turkish media (you will switch to another service).
The extradition issue will certainly come up when the Swedish foreign minister travels to Ankara. According to Turkish information Tobias Billström will arrive in Turkey on Thursday.
President Erdoğan proposed the extradition himself
Keneş’s case is exceptional because Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has publicly hoped for his extradition. Erdoğan mentioned Keneş as a “terrorist” to be extradited when he met Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson in Ankara in November.
According to the Swedish Supreme Court, Keneş is at risk of political persecution if he is extradited. In addition, at least some of the crimes he is accused of do not meet the principle of double criminality. The principle means that the crime on which the extradition is based must be a crime in both countries.
“It is not important who decides, as long as the usurper is handed over”
In Turkey, Keneş is accused of involvement in the 2016 coup attempt. According to Turkey, the main perpetrator is a religious leader living in the United States Fethullah Gülen. Among other things, Keneş has worked at Zaman magazine, which is close to Gülen’s movement, before he fled to Sweden.
The Minister of Justice who spoke to Swedish TV SVT by Gunnar Strömmer (you switch to another service) according to Sweden is a state governed by the rule of law and cases have a prescribed order of processing.
According to the Turkish Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu, it is not important who decides the issues, as long as the “power grabber” is handed over and Turkey’s expectations are met.
Turkey refers to the memorandum of understanding agreed in Madrid as the basis for the extradition demands. However, the document does not agree on the handover of individual persons. It promises to speed up the processing of extradition requests submitted by Turkey.
Story edited at 17:35. In the penultimate paragraph and the title, the phrase “doesn’t matter” has been changed to “isn’t important”.
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