Swedish court blocks extradition of a Turkish man to Ankara - report

Sweden’s Supreme Court has blocked the extradition of a Turkish man that Ankara blames of being a Gulen Movement supporter, Reuters reported.

The court on Monday said the man was accused of allegedly taking part in a July 2016 coup attempt in Turkey that Ankara blames on the US-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen.

"It is clear in this case that there are several hindrances against extradition," the court said in a statement, Reuters said.

According to the court, the allegations in part related to a political crime and that there was a risk of persecution based on this person's political views, Reuters said.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb.24, Sweden, alongside with Finland officially applied for NATO membership in May. While the vast majority of NATO members welcomed the two country’s applications, the final approval of the two Scandinavian countries’ NATO bids depends on the current 30 member states’ parliaments, where Ankara says it will not approve the documents if Stockholm and Helsinki fail to fulfil their commitments, regarding Turkey’s extradition requests of terror suspects.

Turkey blames the Gulen Movement for trying to overthrow the Turkish government via a coup attempt held on July 15, 2016. Fethullah Gulen, the leader of the group that Turkey has designated as a terrorist organization, denies the accusations.

Earlier this month, Sweden has extradited a Kurdish asylum seeker to Turkey, that was seen as a Swedish move to convince Ankara to green-light its NATO bid.

Mahmut Tat was convicted by a Turkish court in 2015 over "terror" charges and was sentenced to a prison sentence of six years and ten months for being a member the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).