The Swedish government has decided to extradite to Turkey a man convicted of fraud in 2013 and two for extradition to Turkey of a number of wanted “terrorist criminals”. However, it is not clear whether the person to be extradited is on the list agreed with Turkey in June, and a spokesman for Sweden’s justice minister told Portal he did not want to comment on the matter. Although the bulk of Turkey’s extradition requests concern ethnic Kurds accused of serious crimes (but being prosecuted by the Turkish government, according to several analysts), extraditing an individual accused of common crimes is seen as a sign of goodwill on Sweden’s part.
The extradition deal was signed after Turkey initially vetoed the two countries’ accession to NATO, accusing them of supporting and absorbing members of some Kurdish organizations, most notably the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which the president and his party considered consider terrorist organizations. The veto was lifted after Sweden and Finland pledged to work together to fight the PKK and extradite some wanted criminals in Turkey. For a new country to join NATO, all other member countries must vote for it.