A Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ)-linked fugitive wanted by Türkiye was spotted in the Swedish capital Stockholm.
After intense field work, Sabah daily found Bülent Keneş, former editor-in-chief and columnist at the now-defunct English-language daily Today's Zaman in the Akersberga area.
Keneş, who fled Türkiye shortly after the July 15 failed coup attempt in 2016, had been living in Stockholm's Skarholmen area since 2020. Pictured walking on the streets, Keneş seemed frightened and roamed the streets in paranoia, always checking his back while running errands. Frequently posting provocative anti-Türkiye posts on social media, Keneş had signaled that there would be a coup in the country nine days before the deadly attempt, which left at least 250 people dead.
“There is no good exit anymore. There is a bad exit and the worse! Let me say the bad one is a coup and you guess the rest,” Keneş said on his Twitter account on July 7, 2016.
He faces three different cases in Türkiye for the coup attempt and is one of the several suspects wanted by Türkiye from Sweden.
Türkiye reiterated its extradition demands for members of the PKK and FETÖ terrorist groups during talks with Swedish delegations as part of Sweden and Finland's bid to join NATO.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had warned recently that Türkiye will not ratify Sweden and Finland's NATO membership bids unless the two Nordic countries "keep their promises.”
For Sweden and Finland to become NATO members, their applications must be ratified by all 30 NATO members. So far, 28 have already done so – only Türkiye and Hungary have votes still pending.
Ankara is "monitoring" Stockholm and Helsinki's efforts in fulfilling their commitments and "cannot make concessions" on the issue of fighting terrorism, Erdoğan said.
Finland and Sweden agreed to address Türkiye's pending deportation or extradition requests of terror suspects.
The Justice Ministry in June formally requested the extradition of 21 suspects from Sweden and 12 from Finland.
FETÖ fugitive Abdullah Bozkurt, who is suspected of taking part in the assassination of Russian Ambassador Andrei Karlov, was also spotted in Sweden. Bozkurt was not included in Sweden's extradition list to Türkiye.
