STOCKHOLM, December 22. /TASS/. Turkey is expanding the list of persons it wants to be extradited from Sweden, Swedish radio reported on Thursday. The names of those Turkish natives residing in Sweden who Ankara wants extradited, were published in the Turkish media.
For a long time, Turkish politicians and the media named 33 persons to be extradited. Now 42 more persons are named in the publications. Most of these individuals are accused of involvement in the activities of organizations that are recognized as terrorist in Turkey.
In particular, 16 people from the list are accused of connections with the Kurdistan Workers' Party, 12 - with the Gulen movement, seven - with various leftist groups, and only seven are charged with criminal offenses.
After Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO, Turkey announced that it would agree to their membership only on the condition that they extradite the Turkish criminals hiding on their territories.
On December 19, the Swedish Supreme Court ruled to stop the extradition of an exiled journalist because in Turkey he might be persecuted for his political views. Earlier, Stockholm halted the extradition of two more persons who had received refugee status in Sweden.
The Supreme Court's ruling means that the government, which must ultimately decide on the matter, is unable to satisfy the extradition request.
On May 18, Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO, but this process was immediately blocked by Turkey. Ankara demanded that these countries declare Kurdish organizations as terrorist ones, extradite persons accused of terrorism or who participated in the 2016 coup attempt in the country, and lift arms bans on Ankara.
On June 28, before the start of a NATO summit in Madrid, talks were held between Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, then Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. A memorandum was signed allowing Stockholm and Helsinki to join NATO. According to the Turkish leader, Sweden promised to extradite more than 70 persons involved in terrorist activities.