Global Courant
A Turkish national has been charged in Sweden with weapons crimes and raising money for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Swedish prosecutors have charged a Turkish national with gun crimes and raising money for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984.
Friday’s case comes at a sensitive time in Sweden’s relations with Turkey, which is holding back its application for NATO membership, in part because it has said Sweden hosts supporters of armed groups it considers “terrorists”.
Sweden’s prosecutor’s office said it was the first time anyone in the country had been charged with attempting to provide funding to the PKK, which Turkey, the European Union and the United States have labeled “a terrorist organization”.
It said the man was suspected of aggravated racketeering, serious gun crime and attempts to fund PKK.
“The investigation has supported suspicions that the man was acting on behalf of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party,” the prosecution authority said in a statement.
According to the indictment, the man was part of a large organization that raised money for the PKK and was in contact with another Turkish citizen who was imprisoned in Germany for being a member of the armed group.
The man’s lawyer, Ilhan Aydin, said his client rejected the allegations of aggravated racketeering and attempted financing, but would accept a lower grade weapons charge.
Aydin also said he did not want the geopolitical situation to overshadow his client’s case.
“I hope my client does not become part of the game or the negotiations over NATO,” he said.
Sweden, which applied to join NATO last year after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, wants its membership ratified before the alliance summit in Vilnius in mid-July.
Only Turkey and Hungary have yet to approve the offer. Finland, which applied with Sweden and was initially blocked by Ankara, joined NATO in April.
Sweden said it has fulfilled all the conditions of a three-pronged pact with Turkey and Finland concluded in Madrid last June to pave the way to NATO membership.
But Turkey has said Sweden has not gone far enough to address its security concerns.
Talks between the two countries about joining NATO will resume next week.
