The Democratic Kurdish Community Centre in Sweden (NCDK-S) has issued a statement on the extradition of Resul Özdemir to Turkey. The 23-year-old Kurd from Cizre district of Şırnak was extradited to Turkey in April after six months in prison in Sweden. In Turkey, he was arrested after interrogation by the anti-terrorist police in Istanbul and transferred to the high-security prison Silivri.

Özdemir had been injured in Cizre during the 2015/2016 curfew and had applied for political asylum in Sweden about two years ago, where his family also lives. He was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment in Turkey. In the Turkish media he has been described as a leader of the PKK.

The NCDK-S released a statement describing the extradition of Resul Özdemir as a scandal and drawing comparisons with the case of the Kurdish activist Gülizar Taşdemir, who had been extradited from Norway to Turkey two years ago. The Norwegian Ministry of Justice was sentenced for the extradition last September by a court in Oslo for violation of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Remarking that Sweden has also violated national and international law, the NCDK-S said the following: "The Swedish government is aware that Resul Özdemir, who has lived and applied for asylum in Sweden and whose safety was therefore subject to Swedish authorities, is in mortal danger in Turkey. He is not only an opposition member but has also been sentenced to a heavy prison term. The whole world knows that torture is systematically carried out in Turkey and that there are no legal standards. In this respect, the Swedish Government should have taken Resul Özdemir's right to life into account when making its decision. Instead, the young Kurd has been handed over to the Turkish state, which acts as the executioner of the Kurds.

The Swedish Government justifies the extradition on the grounds that Resul Özdemir has committed criminal offences and has therefore spent six months in prison in Sweden. Even if it is true that he has committed crimes in Sweden, he cannot be extradited to a state that puts thousands of innocent people in prison. This is contrary both to democratic standards in Sweden and to international law and human rights. Sweden has not followed the procedures of international law. We criticise and condemn this.

We would also like to emphasize that Resul Özdemir was not a member of our association and that there were no legal or organizational ties. Therefore there was no opportunity to take care of his bureaucratic and legal issues. His lawyer and his family followed the legal process. Only when his extradition to Turkey became known did our legal commission learn of it and became active in this matter. Lawyers were called in and contact was made with Swedish institutions and the media. Everything has been done to prevent Resul Özdemir's extradition to Turkey.”

RELATED NEWS: