Swedish court approves extradition of PKK supporter to Türkiye

Sweden's Supreme Court has approved the first extradition of a supporter of the bloody-minded PKK terror group to Türkiye ahead of new talks in the dispute over Sweden's admission to the NATO defence alliance.

The approval was included in a decision made available by the court to dpa on Wednesday.

The relevant Swedish laws posed no obstacle to the man's extradition to serve out the remainder of his sentence, it said. Nor was it incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights, it said.

The government in Stockholm can now decide whether to extradite the 35-year-old.

Türkiye has demanded numerous extraditions from Sweden in the wake of the ongoing NATO dispute.

The man was arrested in Sweden in the summer of 2022 at the request of the Turkish judiciary. Since then he has been in pre-trial detention. He had been sentenced to four years and seven months in prison for drug crimes in the southern Turkish city of Adana in 2014.

According to the Swedish court order issued the previous week, he admitted to the drug crimes and was released early on parole for good behaviour. In 2018, he came to Sweden from Turkey.

He is a member of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and supports both the the People's Defence Units (YPG) in Syria and the banned PKK.

The HDP has been accused of being the extended arm of the PKK.