Sweden charges Turk with PKK fundraising

A demonstration against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Sweden's NATO bid, arranged by the Kurdish Democratic Society Center at Norra Bantorget in Stockholm, Sweden, Jan. 21, 2023 – Reuters
A demonstration against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Sweden's NATO bid, arranged by the Kurdish Democratic Society Center at Norra Bantorget in Stockholm, Sweden, Jan. 21, 2023 – Reuters

QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Swedish prosecutors have charged a Turkish man of raising money for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) on June 9. 

The 40-year-old man is suspected of aggravated extortion, serious gun crimes, and attempted funding of terrorism.

“The investigation has given support for suspicions that the man was acting on behalf of the Kurdistan Workers Party,” prosecutors said in a statement.

According to the indictment, the man also maintained contact with another Turkish national who was sentenced to prison in Germany in 2016 for fundraising for the PKK.

Sweden formally applied to join NATO in May 2022, prompted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, but Turkey and Hungary did not immediately approve its bid as Ankara accuses Stockholm of sheltering members of the PKK, which has launched an armed insurgency against Turkey since 1984, in addition to figures affiliated with Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric who staged a coup in 2016.

Reporting by John Ahmad