The 4th Section of it Council of Stateconsidered the decision of the Deputy Minister of Justice to extradite 54-year-old businessman Ali Yesildag to Turkey legal and in accordance with European and Greek legislation.

It should be noted that Ali Yesildag had close family and professional ties with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, before accusing him (Erdogan) of corruption.

More specifically, in November 2023, Greek border guards found the 54-year-old businessman in a rural area of ​​Fera, having illegally crossed the Greek-Turkish border.

Subsequently, a request was sent to our country by the general prosecutor’s office of Bursa for the execution of an arrest warrant and the extradition of Ali Yesildag to the neighboring country, in order to execute the decision of the court of Bursa from 1.6.2022. With this decision of the Turkish court, he has been sentenced to a total prison sentence of 1,665 days and, by merger, 19 years and 23 months.

The Turkish national was convicted under the Turkish Penal Code for premeditated murder, robbery in a residence or shop, wounding with a weapon, cooperation with several other persons to buy, transport or possess weapons and bullets without a permit and robbery at night hours, with other people. These offenses correspond to the Greek Penal Code with those of manslaughter, robbery, theft, illegal possession of weapons, etc.

In favor of his release Ali Yesildag in Turkey, the Appeals Council of Thrace was appointed, whose decision, last February, was overturned by the 7th Criminal Division of the Supreme Court.

Following this, the 54-year-old appealed to the Supreme Court, requesting the annulment of the decision of the Deputy Minister of Justice to extradite him to Turkey.

In the SC, among others, he argued that with his release to Turkey there is the possibility that he will suffer other criminal prosecutions for other crimes, such as that of terrorism, but also be tortured, have cruel, inhumane treatment, etc.

And all this, because in the past he had personal, family and business relations with the President of the Republic of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and subsequently, after the rupture of these relations, his public revelations in the Turkish mass media about financial scandals in which the President of the Republic of Turkey and other government officials were allegedly involved.

At the same time, he argued that the decision of the Deputy Minister of Justice violates the ECHR, the United Nations Convention against Torture, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, the Constitution, etc.

Finally, the CoE, chaired by vice-president Spyridoula Chrysikopoulou and rapporteur Ioannis Papagiannis, rejected as unfounded all the allegations of Ali Yesildag and upheld the decision of the Deputy Minister of Justice to extradite him to Turkey.