Nonetheless, Swedish information company TT mentioned he was Bulent Kenes and that Turkey claims that he was co-responsible for the coup try in Turkey in 2016.
Kenes, 55, who has asylum in Sweden, was the editor of the English-language Right now’s Zaman newspaper, which was owned by the community linked to U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen. It was closed down as a part of a authorities crackdown on the group. Turkey blames Gulen for the failed coup in 2016 and considers his community to be a terror group.
NATO-member Turkey has been holding up bids by Sweden and Finland to affix the army alliance, urgent for the 2 Nordic nations to crackdown on teams it considers to be terrorist organizations and extradite suspects needed in Turkey.
When Sweden and Finland dropped their longstanding insurance policies of army nonalignment and utilized for NATO membership in Could, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan promptly mentioned his nation wouldn’t settle for them and accused the 2 Nordic nations of turning a blind eye to terrorism. Any choice on NATO enlargement requires approval by all alliance members.
Final month, Erdogan had singled Kenes out throughout a joint information convention with the Swedish prime minister in Ankara.
“There may be one member of the (Gulen) terrorist group in Sweden, whose identify I’ll give: Bulent Kenes,” Erdogan mentioned. “For instance, the deportation of this terrorist to Turkey is of nice significance to us, and we in fact need Sweden to behave with extra sensitivity (on the difficulty).”
Kenes welcomed the choice however insisted that he shouldn’t even be thought of a suspect.
“I’m glad in fact. However the choice was anticipated,” Kenes advised Swedish broadcaster SVT. “I’m not fully glad as a result of they are saying that I’m suspected of crimes in Turkey. I’ve dedicated no crime in any respect. These accusations are fully fabricated by Erdogan’s regime.”
“Sadly, I count on dangerous issues from Erdogan and his regime. They’ll proceed to attempt to abuse the authorized system,” Kenes was quoted as saying by SVT.
The Supreme Court docket in Stockholm mentioned that there’s “a danger of persecution primarily based on the particular person’s political beliefs.”
“It’s clear that on this case there are a number of obstacles to extradition,” Supreme Court docket decide Petter Asp mentioned within the assertion “Extradition can’t due to this fact happen.”
Earlier this month, Sweden deported an unnamed man who fled there after being convicted by a Turkish court docket of membership in an armed group in 2015. Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Company recognized the person as Mahmut Tat who had been sentenced to greater than six years in jail.
Suzan Fraser in Ankara contributed to this report.
