A so-called Swedish representative of the PKK/YPG terrorist organization is set to appear in court next week to face money laundering charges, according to the local newspaper Expressen on Tuesday.

Shiyar Ali, 59, will appear before the Stockholm Nacka District Court on Jan. 16 on suspicion of laundering around 400,000 euros (nearly $430,000), the newspaper said.

He brought the money, which he claimed to be "aid collected for the north of Syria," from the so-called PKK/YPG office in Troisdorf, located between Cologne and Bonn, Germany, on Oct. 27, 2017.

That year, Swedish police raided the Newroz TV (Aryen) channel, which was spreading propaganda for the terrorist group in Stockholm and Europe. Authorities seized 400,000 euros and accused Ali of "forgery in documents and money laundering."

According to the report, Per Orneus, ambassador for the Syria crisis in the Swedish Foreign Ministry, will testify regarding humanitarian aid in northern Syria where the PKK/YPG terrorist group is present.

Anna Erhardt, press adviser to the Swedish Foreign Ministry, did not respond to Anadolu Agency's (AA) question regarding the matter.

The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the European Union and the United States, and is responsible for the deaths of 40,000 people, including women, children and infants. The YPG, which is also known as the PYD with a broad presence in Europe and is sanctioned by several governments, is the PKK's Syrian offshoot.

The two groups have been using terrorist bases across Türkiye's border in northern Iraq and northern Syria to plot and carry out attacks on Türkiye. The PKK has been trying to create a terrorist corridor along the Syrian border, threatening both Syrian locals and nearby Turkish residents, as well as exploiting energy sources with U.S. support.

According to Europol's EU Terrorism Situation & Trend Report 2022, the group continues to "use Europe for fundraising by legal and illegal means," which include "fundraising campaigns and donations, as well as extortion and other organized criminal activities."

Drug trafficking in the EU is one of those criminal activities generating funds for the terrorists where members and supporters are involved in all aspects of the illicit narcotics trade, and channel funds for their subversive activities in Türkiye and Syria.

The widespread presence of terror elements in Europe, but especially in Sweden, has also been a source of discord between Stockholm and Ankara, which only intensified over the past year with the Nordic country’s bid to join NATO alongside Finland following the Russia-Ukraine war. The Turkish government has blocked the accession process, vehemently criticizing the country for "harboring and tolerating" terrorists from the PKK/YPG and the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), which it said was a threat to itself and the alliance in general.

In an effort to garner Ankara’s hard-earned approval for its pending membership and address its security concerns, Stockholm extradited three people, including a PKK terrorist member, to Türkiye in early December. Ankara welcomed the development but said it "wasn’t enough" for a greenlight. As of the new year, Sweden has also taken into effect a constitutional amendment that enables "greater possibilities to make use of legal means to limit freedom of association for groups that engage in or support terrorism."

However, Sweden’s top court last month refused to extradite a prominent FETÖ suspect, Bülent Keneş, in a move that was displeasing for Ankara, with Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu declaring the country "not even halfway through fulfilling the commitments" it made to secure their support. On the contrary, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson earlier this week maintained his country had lived up to its commitments and that the decision now "lies with Türkiye."

Ankara has been urging Europe to crack down on the rising threat of PKK/YPG terrorists for many years now and only upped its warnings in the wake of widespread violence by terrorist sympathizers protesting a Dec. 24 attack on a Kurdish cultural center in the French capital Paris that left three dead and more wounded.