Sweden's extradition of convict falls short, Turkish minister warns

ISTANBUL • Turkey's Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag yesterday said Sweden's pledge to extradite a Turkish convict fell short of Stockholm's commitments under a deal paving the way for its Nato membership bid.

Nato member Turkey is threatening to freeze Sweden's attempts to join the alliance unless it extradites dozens of people Ankara accuses of "terrorism".

A non-binding deal that Sweden and Finland signed with Turkey in June commits them to "expeditiously and thoroughly" examining Ankara's requests for suspects linked to a 2016 coup attempt and outlawed Kurdish militants.

The Swedish government said earlier this month that it would extradite Okan Kale - a man convicted of credit card fraud who appeared on a list of people sought by Ankara published by Turkish media.

Mr Bozdag told a news site that Sweden needed to do far more to win his country's trust. "If they think that by extraditing ordinary criminals to Turkey they will make us believe that they have fulfilled their promises, they are wrong," he said in the first government response to the extradition decision. "Nobody should test Turkey," he warned.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan himself has warned that he will not submit the two countries' applications for ratification in Parliament unless they comply with extradition demands in full. Mr Erdogan said last month that Sweden had made a "promise" to extradite "73 terrorists".

The Turkish Justice Ministry in June formally requested the extradition of 21 suspects from Sweden and 12 from Finland.

Sweden and Finland ended decades of military neutrality and decided to try to join Nato in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Their bids have already been ratified by the US and more than half of the Nato members. Each application must win unanimous consent from member states.

Sweden and Finland are due to hold their first formal consultations with Turkey about the dispute in Stockholm next Friday.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE