Sweden announced that it will extradite a Turkish citizen requested by Ankara, but it rejected another extradition request, at a time when Turkey stresses that responding to deportation requests is a prerequisite for ratifying Sweden's accession to NATO.

Turkish media quoted the Swedish Ministry of Justice as having agreed to extradite Omar Altun, a 29-year-old Turkish citizen, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison last year by a Turkish court on charges "equivalent to fraud in Sweden", but stipulated that he be re-tried upon his return to Turkey.

It indicated that the Swedish government rejected another request for the extradition of Muhammad Zakir Karael, a 51-year-old Swede whom Ankara suspects of being a member of an "armed terrorist organization", according to the Swedish Ministry of Justice, stressing that Swedish law does not allow the extradition of those who hold its nationality.

Last year, Sweden handed over two Turks wanted by Turkey to Ankara, and rejected several other requests, including the request to extradite the former editor-in-chief of the daily Zaman newspaper, whom Turkey accuses of being involved in the attempted coup of Fethullah Gulen in July 2016.

It is noteworthy that Turkey, Sweden and Finland signed, on June 28, a tripartite memorandum of understanding regarding the accession of the latter two countries to NATO, after they pledged to respond to Ankara's demands regarding cooperation in the fight against terrorism. Finland obtained membership after Turkey's approval, while Sweden is still seeking to do so.

Source: National Iraqi News Agency