Just in time for the resumption of NATO talks with Turkey, Sweden has presented a proposal for tougher terror laws. According to the government's plans, it will be a punishable offence in future to participate in a terrorist organisation or to finance such participation.

Violators could face several years in prison, according to the draft published on Thursday. This is intended to close a loophole in the law. While the parliament must now vote on the law, the amendments are to come into force on 1 June. That would be two weeks after the parliamentary and presidential elections in Turkey.

Sweden has been working on tightening its anti-terror laws for years. Sweden's Legislative Council, however, criticised the proposal that has now been introduced, stating that the draft law "cannot be used as a basis for legislation in its present form". Several ambiguous passages were criticized by the Council, saying that the interpretation was too difficult in practice. Moreover, it said, the new law was not even necessary, as many things were already punishable anyway. These include membership in a "terrorist organisation", its financing or the recruitment of new members.

That the draft is coming now is seen as a sign in the NATO dispute with Turkey. After decades of neutrality, Sweden, together with Finland, applied for admission in May last year as a result of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. But Ankara is blocking the admission of the two countries. Sweden is accused of taking insufficient action against "terrorist organisations".

The alleged terrorist organisations are the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the People's Defence Units (YPG) active in northern and eastern Syria. The Turkish government is also demanding that Sweden extradite more than a hundred people who are considered "terrorists" in Turkey. These are mainly opposition members in exile who sought protection from political persecution in Sweden. They were bargaining chips when Ankara demanded concessions from the government in Stockholm in return for the "yes" to the country's accession to NATO.

The list of wanted "terrorists" submitted by Turkey to Sweden also included the name of Mahmut Tat. The asylum-seeking Kurdish activist from Dersim, who has a final sentence of almost seven years in prison in Turkey for alleged PKK membership for taking part in two legal demonstrations, was extradited to Ankara in December. Since his transfer to the Turkish regime authorities, he has been held in a high-security prison near Istanbul.

The talks on the admission of Sweden and Norway to NATO also started again yesterday. After a break of several weeks, negotiators from the three countries met again for the first time in Brussels, as was confirmed by NATO circles. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also took part in the meeting.