Turkey is again trying to make a dual citizen of Turkey and Finland living in Tampere guilty of insulting its president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The latest request for mutual legal assistance arrived at Finland’s Ministry of Justice shortly after Erdoğan began to publicly present his country’s conditions for supporting Finland’s NATO membership.
Turkey has previously requested the Tampere’s extradition once before, but the Ministry of Justice rejected the request in 2021. The request for mutual legal assistance is dated May 23 in Turkey.
According to the prosecutor, Turkey is accusing the man of publishing derogatory pictures of the president and insulting comments on Facebook. The man from Tampere has repeatedly denied the crime.
On June 27, several Turkish media outlets published a list of persons that Turkey wants Finland and Sweden to extradite "terrorists" or suspects of other crimes. Although this Tampere resident is not alleged to be a terrorist, he is listed as a suspect for defamation of the Turkish president.
The Ministry of Justice has received two extradition requests from Turkey this year, but they were made before Finland’s application to NATO.
However, several requests for legal aid have been requested since Erdoğan started imposing conditions on Finland. Taina Neira According to the Ministry of Justice, the requests do not refer to any list published in the Turkish media, for example.
Turkey has requested the extradition of the Tampere resident once, but the Ministry of Justice rejected the request in 2021.
The Pirkanmaa district court rejected Turkey’s previous requests for legal aid in 2019 and 2021.
With the current legal aid request, the Turkish prosecutor is asking Finland for legal aid to continue the trial against the Tampere resident in Turkey.
Turkey has not renewed its extradition request, but wants the Finnish court to summon the man to the case.
The request was rejected twice as a violation of human rights
The Finnish Act on International Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters states that legal assistance will not be granted if it would be against the principles of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Turkey’s latest request for legal aid has not yet been opened.
According to Turkey’s previous requests for legal assistance, the suspected crimes would have taken place in February 2016. The Turkish prosecutor has already filed charges against the Tampere resident in Turkey during December 2016.
The district court of Pirkanmaa stated in its decision regarding the second request for legal aid that the granting of legal aid would be in conflict with the principles of human rights and fundamental freedoms due to the Turkish criminal law, which would subject the matter directly to the influence of the Turks. president.
The court mentioned that the Tampere native’s writings were vulgar, but they were clearly aimed at the Turkish administration and political system and were not defamatory.
According to the court, the writings can be evaluated as provocative comments related to political differences and thus understandable.
The district court considered that the political nature of Tampere’s writings would hinder his chances of a fair trial in Turkey. Therefore, the court did not accept Turkey’s previous requests for legal assistance.
The court previously considered that the granting of Turkish legal aid would be against the principles of human rights and fundamental freedoms of the Finnish legal system.
Source: The Nordic Page