Turkey increases the number of extradition requests from Sweden to 42

Turkey has increased the number of people who expects Sweden to extradite to 42, Euronews said, citing Swedish media on Thursday.

Previous list was included 33 names, mostly accused by Ankara of being a member of a “terrorist” organization, it said.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb.24, Sweden, alongside with Finland officially applied for NATO membership. 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 accession documents if Stockholm and Helsinki fail to fulfil their commitments, regarding Turkey’s extradition requests of terror suspects.

According to Swedish media, 16 people are deemed to be linked to Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), 12 to Gulen Movement, 7 to various leftist groups which all are designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey. The remaining 7 of the list are charged with fraud-related crimes.

On Monday, Sweden’s Supreme Court has blocked the extradition of Turkish journalist Bulent Kenes who Ankara blames of being a Gulen movement supporter. While Ankara denounced the court’s decision as a “very negative development”, Sweden said it was bound to act in accordance with the Supreme Court's ruling.

Last month Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan singled out Kenes as a person Ankara wants to be extradited from Sweden as a condition for Turkey’s approval for Stockholm to join NATO.