Sweden Deports Convicted PKK Member to Turkey

Sweden has extradited a convicted member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) to Turkey, according to state media reports on Saturday.

The man was sentenced to more than six years in prison for his affiliation with the PKK membership in Turkey but managed to escape to Sweden where he applied for asylum, an application rejected by the Swedish authorities.

The Turkish Anatolia news agency reported that the man arrived in Istanbul on Friday evening after being detained by Swedish police.

Local broadcaster NTV reported that Turkish police detained him.

Handing over suspects deemed terrorists by Ankara has been one of the sticking points in Sweden and Finland's accession to NATO, with Turkey the only member opposing Stockholm and Helsinki joining the defence alliance.

Turkey has in the past accused both countries of harbouring members of banned Kurdish groups that Ankara considers "terrorists".

While NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg pointed out that it is time to welcome Sweden and Finland to the alliance, Turkey is looking forward to seeing if the two countries fulfil all the conditions of the tripartite agreement concluded to allow them to enter the military alliance in June.

The Nordic countries pledged to process pending deportation or extradition requests to Turkey for terrorism suspects and to lift the arms embargo on Ankara.

Turkey is looking forward to the extradition of 33 suspected "terrorists" from Sweden and Finland.