Sweden's top court on Monday rejected a request to extradite a terror suspect wanted by Türkiye, saying the crime the person is alleged to have committed is “not criminalized" in the Scandinavian country.
In a statement, the Supreme Court said that there were “obstacles to extradition because it is a matter of so-called political crimes, i.e. crimes that are directed against the state and that are political in nature.” The court did not name the suspect in line with Swedish policy.
However, the Swedish news agency TT said the suspect was Bülent Keneş and that Ankara claims he was a member of the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), which was responsible for the failed coup attempt in Türkiye in 2016.
Keneş, 55, who has asylum in Sweden, was the editor of the English-language Today’s Zaman newspaper, which was owned by the terrorist group linked to U.S.-based Fetullah Gülen. It was closed down as part of a government crackdown on the group after the coup attempt.
NATO member Türkiye has been holding up bids by Sweden and Finland to join the military alliance, pressing for the two Nordic countries to crack down on terrorist groups and extradite suspects wanted in Türkiye.
When Sweden and Finland dropped their longstanding policies of military nonalignment and applied for NATO membership in May, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan promptly said his country would not accept them and accused the two Nordic countries of turning a blind eye to terrorism. Any decision on NATO enlargement requires approval by all alliance members.
Last month, Erdoğan had singled Keneş out during a joint news conference with the Swedish prime minister in Ankara.
“There is one member of the terrorist organization in Sweden, whose name I will give: Bülent Keneş,” Erdoğan said. “For example, the deportation of this terrorist to Türkiye is of great importance to us, and we of course want Sweden to act with more sensitivity (on the issue).”
The Supreme Court in Stockholm said that there is “a risk of persecution based on the person’s political views.”
“It is clear that in this case there are several obstacles to extradition,” Supreme Court judge Petter Asp said in the statement “Extradition cannot, therefore, take place.”
Earlier this month, Sweden deported an unnamed man who fled there after being convicted by a Turkish court of membership in an armed organization in 2015. Turkish media identified the man as Mahmut Tat who had been sentenced to more than six years in prison.
