On Thursday, Sweden agreed to extradite a man convicted for credit card fraud in Turkey following Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s constant threats to “freeze” Stockholm’s North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) bid if it failed to adhere to the June deal.
The Turkish citizen’s extradition is the first known case since Turkey signed a deal with Sweden and Finland in June to support their NATO membership applications, which addressed Ankara’s “legitimate security concerns.”
Sweden's extradition of this fraud suspect to Turkey suggests that Erdogan's hard bargaining on NATO membership has reaped some success. Its still unclear whether Sweden will cave to Turkey on terrorism suspects and extradite alleged PKK affiliates pic.twitter.com/FJ2SF0ifIf
— Samuel Ramani (@SamRamani2) August 11, 2022
Calling it a “routine normal matter,” Swedish Minister of Justice Morgan Johansson confirmed to Reuters that the “person in question is a Turkish citizen and convicted of fraud offences in Turkey in 2013 and 2016.” “The Supreme Court has examined the issue as usual and concluded that there are no obstacles to extradition,” he added. In this respect, the Supreme Court declared on July 25 that no evidence indicates that the man, named Okan Kale, is at risk of being persecuted in Turkey.
However, as per Swedish broadcaster SVT, which was the first to report on the extradition, Kale was sentenced to 14 years of imprisonment in Turkey on several accounts of credit card fraud. It also said Kale was detained in Sweden last year because of the extradition case. However, Kale has professed that he was “wrongfully” sentenced in Turkey since he converted from Islam to Christianity and declined to partake in military service, and because of his Kurdish roots.
In 2011, Kale petitioned for asylum in Sweden and then protection status in 2022 but the Migration Agency rejected both applications. As per court documents, he was given refugee status in Italy in 2014.
Sweden capitulates to Turkey for NATO bid.
— Lindsey Snell (@LindseySnell) August 11, 2022
“The terms of the deal involved Sweden intensifying work on Turkish extradition requests.”
Thousands of critics of Erdogan who’ve sought asylum in Sweden to avoid incarceration and torture are in jeopardy again. https://t.co/aAgnmm41n7
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Sweden and Finland, which were historically non-aligned nations, applied for NATO membership on May 18. However, Turkey objected to their applications, accusing the Nordic countries of giving refuge to former fighters from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and its Syrian affiliate, the Peoples Protection Units (YPG), both of which Ankara considers to be terrorist organisations and a national security threat. This proved to be a major hurdle in the two nations’ accession to NATO, as applicants require unanimous approval of all 30 members of the alliance.
Turkey had also demanded that Sweden and Finland take “concrete steps on the extradition of terrorist criminals.” In 2017, Turkey requested the extradition of Kurdish fighters and other militants but had not received a reply from Sweden. In this regard, Swedish Prime Minister (PM) Magdalena Andersson revealed that a substantial number of cases are being “handled swiftly and carefully by our legal system in accordance with European Convention on Extradition.”
Kale is reportedly one of 73 individuals that Ankara wants to be extradited from Stockholm. However, Swedish Ministry of Justice spokeswoman Angelica Vallgren refused to reveal whether he was part of Turkey’s extradition list.
A Kurd, living in Sweden, is now being extradited by the Turkish government. He's on the list of Kurds that Erdogan wants extradited from Sweden, based on the NATO agreement. He will now face everything but a fair trial in Turkey and potentially being tortured in Turkish prisons. pic.twitter.com/GAOMBTOhS8
— Adan Anwar (@AdanAnwar15) August 11, 2022
Last month, Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu slammed Stockholm for not extraditing terrorism-related suspects to Ankara, which was a part of the June agreement. “They must fulfill their responsibilities, or we’ll block their NATO bids,” he warned, adding that “terror propaganda in Sweden and Finland continues.”
“If obligations are fulfilled, it will be sent to the president and he will send it to Parliament. Of course, Parliament will decide, but it cannot be sent right now,” Çavuşoğlu said referring to the ratification of the Nordic countries’ NATO accession protocols. Similarly, Erdoğan affirmed that Sweden “was not showing a good image” currently.
Çavuşoğlu also revealed on Thursday that Turkey, Sweden and Finland are slated to meet on August 26 for the first meeting of the joint mechanism agreed to under the trilateral memorandum in June.