Sweden’s Justice Minister Morgan Johansson told state-controlled Sveriges Television that Swedish citizens would not be extradited to Turkey, and that such matters would be settled by the courts.
“In Sweden, independent courts apply Swedish law. Swedish citizens are not extradited to other countries,” Johansson told SVT in a written statement.
The minister did not deny the number of people Turkey has demanded for extradition.
Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson also said Sweden would follow domestic and international law in matters of extradition, and that the process would depend on the information Turkey would provide on the individuals.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told reporters on Thursday after NATO’s Madrid summit ended that Sweden and Finland had promised to extradite a total of 73 people. Turkey believes these individuals to have committed terrorism offences.
“They will give us these. This is their promise. And it has been put down in written record. So they will keep their promise,” Erdoğan said, responding to a Swedish journalist.
If the two Nordic countries do not “carry out their duties” as described in Tuesday’s trilateral memorandum, Turkish parliament will not ratify their bids to join NATO, Erdoğan said.
On Friday, Erdoğan told Turkish reporters that there was “no rush” for the ratification.
“This should be known: These signatures don’t mean that the issue is done … Without our parliament’s approval, this does not go into effect. So there is no need to Rush,” Reuters cited Erdoğan as saying.
Finland’s Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said no specific names had been discussed for extradition.
“We agreed that now we have signed a text and everything that we have signed is in the text,” Haavisto told reporters on Friday. “We did not, in Madrid, discuss any individuals or any listings.”