COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Sweden’s top court on Thursday ruled there were legal obstacles to extraditing two Turks that Ankara says are part of a terrorist group, potentially complicating Stockholm’s bid to join NATO just days after Turkey dropped objections to Sweden’s membership.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Monday agreed to put Sweden’s bid to join the NATO military alliance to the country’s parliament after months of delays that strained the bloc as war raged in Ukraine.
Ankara accuses the Nordic country of doing too little to deal with people Turkey sees as terrorists, with extradition a key sticking point.
Erdogan told a NATO summit this week he expects Sweden to take concrete steps against terrorism, while announcing he planned to forward its NATO application to parliament in the autumn.
Turkey is currently seeking the extradition of two Turkish citizens from Sweden on accusations they are part of the Gulen movement, which it designates a terrorist organisation. Turkey says U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen was behind a coup attempt in 2016.
Sweden’s government decides on extradition requests and has the final say. But the country’s Supreme Court said there were legal obstacles to agreeing to Turkey’s request.
“The (in Turkey’s view) criminal acts have consisted of the persons joining the Gulen movement by downloading and using a mobile application, which is used by the movement’s members,” the court said in a statement.
These actions alone did not equate to participation in a terrorist organisation under Swedish law, it continued, adding that extradition must be based on actions that constitute a crime in both Sweden and Turkey.
Another obstacle is that the two people were at risk of persecution in Turkey, it said.
A spokesperson for the Swedish prime minister declined to comment and a justice minister spokesperson did not reply to a request for comment, while a spokesperson for the Turkish foreign ministry was not immediately available.
Sweden made participating in a terrorist organisation illegal earlier this year.
(Reporting by Louise Breusch Rasmussen in Copenhagen; additional reporting by Ece Toksabay in Ankara; editing by Anna Ringstrom and Emma Rumney)
