Sweden blocks extradition of journalist sought by Erdogan

Sweden blocks extradition of journalist sought by Erdogan
Turkish journalist Bulent Kenes, near Stockholm, Sweden, Nov. 10, 2022. (AFP)
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Updated 19 December 2022

Sweden blocks extradition of journalist sought by Erdogan

Sweden blocks extradition of journalist sought by Erdogan
  • Bulent Kenes is the only person Erdogan has identified by name among dozens of people Ankara wants extradited in exchange for approving Sweden’s NATO membership
  • Kenes: ‘It is not an unexpected decision. I have always repeated that I had 100% trust in the Swedish legal system and judicial system because Sweden has rule of law’

STOCKHOLM: Sweden’s Supreme Court on Monday blocked the extradition of exiled Turkish journalist Bulent Kenes, a key demand by Ankara to ratify Stockholm’s NATO membership.
There were “several hindrances” to sending back the former editor-in-chief of the Zaman daily, who Turkiye accuses of being involved in a 2016 attempt to topple President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the court said.
Some of the accusations against Kenes are not crimes in Sweden, which along with the political nature of the case and his refugee status, made extradition impossible, the court added.
“There is also a risk of persecution based on this person’s political beliefs. An extradition can thusly not take place,” Judge Petter Asp said in a statement.
As a result, “the government... is not able to grant the extradition request.”
Sweden’s foreign ministry’s press office underscored the point.
“If the Supreme Court declares that there are hindrances to an extradition in an individual case the government has to deny the extradition request,” the ministry said.
“We can’t speculate on any potential effects on the NATO accession. Sweden’s government has to follow Swedish and international law in extradition affairs, which is also laid out in the trilateral agreement,” it added.
Kenes is the only person Erdogan has identified by name among dozens of people Ankara wants extradited in exchange for approving Sweden’s NATO membership.
Following decades — or in Sweden’s case centuries — of staying out of a military alliance, the two countries made the historic decision to apply to join NATO after Russia invaded Ukraine.
The bid needs unanimous approval from all NATO members.
Apart from Hungary, which is due to ratify Sweden’s and Finland’s membership in early 2023, Turkiye is the only country to threaten to prevent the two countries from joining NATO.
Turkiye, which has accused Sweden especially of providing a safe haven for outlawed Kurdish groups it deems “terrorists,” has held back on ratifying their NATO applications despite reaching an agreement with Sweden and Finland in June.
Ankara says it expects Stockholm in particular to take tougher action on several issues, including the extradition of criminals.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson traveled to Turkiye in November to meet Erdogan to discuss the issues.
When pressed about “terrorists” he wants extradited from Sweden during a joint press conference, Erdogan only named Kenes as one on the list.
Stockholm has repeatedly stressed that its judiciary is independent and has the final say in extraditions.
In early December, Sweden extradited to Turkiye a convicted member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), who had fled to Sweden in 2015 but had his asylum request denied.
Kenes, who now works for the Stockholm Center for Freedom — an association founded by other Turkish dissidents in exile — told AFP Monday that he was “happy” but not surprised by the court’s opinion.
“It is not an unexpected decision. I have always repeated that I had 100 percent trust in the Swedish legal system and judicial system because Sweden has rule of law,” Kenes said, while stressing that the allegations against him were “fabricated by the Erdogan regime.”
He insisted he committed “neither political crime nor violent crime.
“I’m not a coup maker, I am not a terrorist,” he added.
“I am just a journalist. I am just a person doing his journalism in the framework of defending human rights,” Kenes said.
Ankara has over time increased the number of people it wants extradited: first 33, then 45, then 73, in unofficial lists published by media close to the Turkish government.
Speaking to AFP in November, Kenes said he believed he was singled out by Erdogan “because he has known me for decades” due to his long career as a journalist, and because it was the first name he came up with off the top of his head.


Nepal urged to tighten climbing rules to cut Everest deaths

Nepal urged to tighten climbing rules to cut Everest deaths
Updated 16 sec ago

Nepal urged to tighten climbing rules to cut Everest deaths

Nepal urged to tighten climbing rules to cut Everest deaths
  • At least 12 climbers died and five are missing during this year’s main climbing season

KATHMANDU: Weak climbers being led up Mount Everest by expedition operators with insufficient experience are causing problems, a veteran mountain guide said on Sunday, after one of the deadliest climbing seasons in years on the world’s highest mountain.

At least 12 climbers died and five are missing and feared dead on the 8,849 meter Mount Everest during this year’s main climbing season that has just ended, the deadliest since an earthquake triggered an avalanche that killed 18 people in 2015.

“Weakest clients with less experienced operators is part of the problem,” Guy Cotter, 69, a noted guide from the New Zealand who has climbed Everest five times, said in the Nepali capital, Kathmandu.

“Clients should have minimum climbing standards with proven prior ascents before coming to Everest,” he said.

Three sherpa climbers were killed when ice came crashing down on them on the lower reaches of the mountain in April and the rest of those who died succumbed to illness or exhaustion, government and hiking officials said.

Nepal does regulate the climbing of Everest and its other Himalayan peak, insisting that everyone gets a permit, for example, but Cotter said the operators who guide clients up the mountain should meet minimum standards of equipment and staff.

“There are many operators who take clients to Everest but do not understand how to avoid incidents occurring and when things do go wrong they do not have processes in place to address the problems,” Cotter said.

Bigyan Koirala, an official with the Department of Tourism that oversees climbing, said the government was considering more regulations but did not give details.

Nepal issued a record of 478 permits for Everest this year and hundreds of people made it to the summit.


UK immigration minister says it is ‘fair’ for asylum-seekers to share hotel rooms 

UK immigration minister says it is ‘fair’ for asylum-seekers to share hotel rooms 
Updated 04 June 2023

UK immigration minister says it is ‘fair’ for asylum-seekers to share hotel rooms 

UK immigration minister says it is ‘fair’ for asylum-seekers to share hotel rooms 
  • Jenrick says his duty is to British taxpayers than migrants

LONDON: UK Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick said that in some cases it was “fair and reasonable” to ask asylum-seekers to share rooms in hotels.

Speaking to the BBC’s “Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg” program, Jenrick said that his obligation was to the British public rather than migrants and that he had to look after taxpayers.  

The interview came after dozens asylum-seekers, who were offered accommodation in a London hotel last week, refused to enter after being told to sleep four to a room.

In a letter to the home secretary, the head of Westminster Council, Adam Huq, voiced his concern that people who “are likely to have been through significant and traumatic events” were being made to share “an inappropriately sized room with multiple strangers.”

According to Jenrick, the government did not want to use hotels since it was “taking away valuable assets for the local business community ... people’s weddings and personal events had to be canceled.

“But where we are using them, it's right that we get good value for money for the taxpayer,” the minister told the BBC. 

“And so, if single adult males can share a room, and it’s legal to do so, which will obviously depend on the size of the accommodation, then we’ll ask people to do that,” he added.

Jenrick denied that it was government policy to house asylum-seekers and migrants in shared rooms.

He also suggested people were lodging illegitimate asylum claims, telling the BBC that the UK’s system was “riddled with abuse” and the country could not be allowed to be “perceived as a soft touch.”

The government is required by law to provide basic accommodation to asylum-seekers who are not permitted to work while their claim is being processed.

Typically, asylum-seekers would be accommodated in hotels or hostels for a few weeks before being transferred to long-term housing

However, with a rise in asylum-seekers and a backlog of processing claims, hotels are increasingly being used to provide temporary housing.

According to the BBC, the use of hotels is costing almost £7 million ($8.7 million) a day, which has sparked criticism among many Conservative MPs. 

In response to Jenrick’s interview, the UK’s Labour party responded: “After 13 years of Tory failure, the asylum system isn’t just broken — it’s costing taxpayers a fortune — only Labour has a proper plan to stop dangerous boat crossings.”


‘Last resort’: Australian women, children in court bid to force repatriation from Syrian camp

‘Last resort’: Australian women, children in court bid to force repatriation from Syrian camp
Updated 04 June 2023

‘Last resort’: Australian women, children in court bid to force repatriation from Syrian camp

‘Last resort’: Australian women, children in court bid to force repatriation from Syrian camp
  • Group say their detention is arbitrary, and they have the right to return to Australia

LONDON: A group of women and their children plan to take the Australian government to court in a bid to be freed from Syrian detention camps, it was reported on Sunday.

Of the 40 Australian mothers and children being held in the Roj camp in northeastern Syria, 17 women and their nine children will file a “writ of habeas corpus” in Australia’s federal court in Melbourne on Monday, the Observer reported.

They argue that, as Australian citizens, they have the right to return to Australia.

They also contest that their detention is arbitrary, and that Canberra has “effective control” of their detention in the camp and, therefore, has the power to set them free, because the Syrian Democratic Forces that run the camp would release them on request.

Save the Children Australia, which is acting as the women and children’s litigation guardian, said the legal action was “a last resort,” with Mat Tinkler, its CEO, previously calling Roj camp “one of the worst places in the world to be a child.”

The women are the wives and widows who bore the children of dead or jailed Daesh fighters. Most have been in the camp for more than four years.

Earlier this week, an Australian child living in a Syrian detention camp wrote to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, pleading to be brought home.

In 2019, eight orphaned children, including a pregnant teenager, were successfully returned to New South Wales and, in October last year, four women and 13 children were also rescued from Roj.

The Australian government made a commitment to repatriate more women and children, but has not carried out any further relocations.

“The repatriations last October raised the remaining children’s hopes that they, too, would soon be out of harm’s way. Instead, they feel they have been abandoned by their country and are losing hope for the future,” Tinkler said.


NATO chief to Erdogan: Sweden ‘has fulfilled obligations’ for membership

Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan shakes hands with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Istanbul, Turkey, June 4, 2023.
Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan shakes hands with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Istanbul, Turkey, June 4, 2023.
Updated 04 June 2023

NATO chief to Erdogan: Sweden ‘has fulfilled obligations’ for membership

Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan shakes hands with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Istanbul, Turkey, June 4, 2023.
  • “Sweden has taken significant concrete steps to meet Turkiye’s concerns,” Stoltenberg told reporters after meeting Erdogan
  • Turkiye has dragged its feet over admitting Sweden to the military alliance

ISTANBUL: NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on Sunday called on Ankara to drop its opposition to Sweden’s bid to join the defense alliance, saying Stockholm has addressed Turkiye’s security concerns.
“Sweden has taken significant concrete steps to meet Turkiye’s concerns,” Stoltenberg told reporters after meeting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “Sweden has fulfilled its obligations.”
Stoltenberg attended on Saturday the inauguration of Erdogan, who was re-elected to serve another five years, in a lavish ceremony joined by dozens of world leaders in the capital Ankara.
NATO member Turkiye has dragged its feet over admitting Sweden to the military alliance. It and Hungary are the only two member countries yet to ratify the membership bid.
Finland formally joined the alliance in April.
Erdogan has accused Sweden of being a haven for “terrorists,” especially members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a group blacklisted by Turkiye and its Western allies.


Philippine immigration runs special arrangements for thousands of Hajj pilgrims

Philippine Charge d’affaires Rommel Romato hands out dates to arriving Filipino pilgrims in Madinah on June 3, 2023.
Philippine Charge d’affaires Rommel Romato hands out dates to arriving Filipino pilgrims in Madinah on June 3, 2023.
Updated 04 June 2023

Philippine immigration runs special arrangements for thousands of Hajj pilgrims

Philippine Charge d’affaires Rommel Romato hands out dates to arriving Filipino pilgrims in Madinah on June 3, 2023.
  • About 7,500 Filipino Muslims will perform Hajj this year
  • Hajj flights began on June 3 and will continue until June 16

MANILA: Philippine authorities made special arrangements to accommodate thousands of Filipino Muslims performing Hajj this year, the Bureau of Immigration said, as the country’s first batch of pilgrims arrived in Saudi Arabia over the weekend.
About 7,500 Filipinos will perform the Hajj in 2023, according to the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos.
The first batch of almost 300 arrived in Madinah on Saturday on board a Philippines Airlines flight.
The Philippines Bureau of Immigration has made special arrangements to accommodate Filipino Hajj pilgrims, it said in a statement, to “improve their overall experience during the 2023 Hajj pilgrimage and thereafter.”
Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco said: “Our primary goal is to make the journey as seamless as possible and allow (them) to focus on their spiritual endeavors without the unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles.
“This is our way of extending support and courtesy to our Muslim brothers who are embarking on this pilgrimage which is considered as one of Islam’s most sacred and important religious events.”
In the predominantly Catholic Philippines, Muslims constitute roughly 5 percent of the country’s population of 110 million. Most live on the island of Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago in the country’s south, as well as in the central-western province of Palawan.
Tansingco said the special measures include dedicated lanes in various airports across the Philippines, designated specifically for the Hajj pilgrims to ensure speedy immigration process.
After the first Hajj flight on Saturday, remaining flights for Filipino pilgrims are scheduled until June 16, NCMF spokesperson Yusoph J. Mando said, adding that the commission “has been working tirelessly” to make this year’s Hajj operations successful.
“It is our hope in the commission that this shall be the beginning of a highly systematic Hajj operations for the Philippines,” Mando said in a statement shared with Arab News on Sunday.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., in a special message delivered by his special assistant Anton Lagdameo during a send-off ceremony in Manila, said Filipino pilgrims “shall also act as our nation’s emissaries of peace and unity with other countries.
“May the tales of your journey inspire, and bridge gaps foster understanding and unity amidst our diversity, and promote a more peaceful and harmonious society,” he said.