Kurds cannot be deported to Turkey

Published 12 July 2024 at 12.06

Law & Right. The Supreme Court has concluded in an opinion that there are obstacles to extraditing a criminal Kurd to Turkey. This with reference to the fact that there is a risk that he will be persecuted and subjected to torture there.

Share the article

TwittraShare

Turkey has requested that a man be extradited there to serve a prison sentence for, among other things, aggravated assault and aggravated unlawful threats.

The man in question is Kurdish and there has been no reason to question that he is active in the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP).

He has claimed that Turkey considers him a terrorist and to support for it relied on several judgments and decisions where he was sentenced to prison, among other things, for having propagated for a terrorist organization and for having insulted the president. Nothing has emerged that gives reason to question the judgments and decisions and his information that Turkey regards him as a terrorist has therefore been accepted.

Furthermore, the man has stated that he was subjected to torture by the police in Turkey. This information is strongly supported by the torture damage investigation that has been obtained in the Supreme Court. The conclusion of the investigation is that the man has psychological and physical symptoms and complaints that are entirely consistent with the torture he states he was subjected to and that it is unlikely that some of the injuries have other causes than those he has stated.

Against this background, HD has concluded that there are obstacles to extradition according to Section 7 of the Extradition Act (risk of persecution) and that an extradition would also be incompatible with Article 3 of the European Convention (risk of torture or other inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment).