Sweden: No investigation into hanging of Erdogan effigy

A Swedish prosecutor said on Monday that there will be no investigation into a recent protest in Stockholm in which a life-size effigy of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was hung from a lamppost by its feet.

The protest by Kurdish activists outside Stockholm's city hall caused outrage in Ankara, and Sweden's ambassador was summoned by the Turkish Foreign Ministry and demanded that those responsible for the demonstration be prosecuted.

However, a Swedish prosecutor formally decided that the action was not punishable by Swedish law.

"I received the case as defamation, but did not think it could amount to defamation. Therefore, I decided not to initiate a preliminary investigation," prosecutor Lucas Eriksson told Aftonbladet on Monday.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier said on Sunday that Ankara's relations with Stockholm will further deteriorate should Sweden fail to take steps against the acts of "terrorists."

Sweden has been seeking Turkey's green light for its accession to NATO, and signed a trilateral deal with Turkey and Finland in mid 2022 that is supposed to ensure Ankara's approval for the two Nordic countries' NATO membership, provided that they crack down on Kurdish activists allegedly affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and hand them over, end support for the Kurdish militia in Northern Syria, and lift arms embargoes imposed on Turkey after its occupation of Syrian territories in 2019.

Erdogan has also said on Sunday that they expect Sweden to extradite "around 130 terrorists" in order for the Turkish parliament to ratify Sweden's accession to NATO.