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Turkish Head of State Erdoğan, Finnish President Niinistö, Swedish Prime Minister Andersson and NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg (end of June in Madrid)
Photo: Murat Cetin Muhurdar / AFP
A month and a half after the agreement in the NATO dispute with Turkey, Sweden has decided to extradite a Turkish citizen.
The name of the approximately 35-year-old man is said to have appeared in the Turkish media as one of the people that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan would like to see delivered.
According to a report by the radio station, the man was sentenced to 14 years in prison by a Turkish court in 2013 and 2016 for bank and credit card abuse.
The Swedish Ministry of Justice confirmed to the dpa news agency that such a decision had been taken.
Attorney General Morgen Johansson said it was a routine matter.
The extradition request had already been received in 2021.
Sweden's Supreme Court has ruled that nothing stands in the way of extradition to serve the sentence.
According to SVT, this is the first known case of extradition since the process for Sweden's NATO admission was initiated.
However, the man had been in custody since the end of 2021 while awaiting the extradition decision.
According to SVT, the man denies the crime and says he was convicted of converting to Christianity and refusing military service.
Sweden and Finland had applied for NATO membership in mid-May as part of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.
Turkey initially blocked the start of this process, citing alleged Swedish and Finnish support for "terrorist organizations".
At the end of June, the three countries signed a memorandum of understanding addressing the reservations.
Turkey has not yet ratified NATO's northern expansion.
asa/dpa
