THE Swedish government announced today the release to Turkey one supporter of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)who has been convicted in his country of illegal drug trafficking, responding de facto to a condition set by Ankara to give the green light to the Nordic country’s NATO membership.

“The government has decided to extradite a 35-year-old Turkish citizen from Sweden,” Ashraf Ahmed, an official at the Swedish Ministry of Justice, told AFP.

The 35-year-old citizen in question claims he is being targeted by the Turkish government for his support for the PKK.

Once the Turkish Ministry of Justice is notified, the Swedish government will have four weeks to extradite the man.

That 35-year-old was sentenced to more than four years in prison in Turkey in 2014 for transporting a bag containing cannabis, according to a ruling by Sweden’s Supreme Court that gave the go-ahead for his extradition in early June.

After being released on parole, he moved to Sweden, but was arrested in August at the request of Turkish prosecutors, demanding that he serve the remainder of his sentence. He claims he is a target of the Turkish authorities because of his support for the PKK.

Turkey has been blocking Sweden’s NATO membership for thirteen months, accusing it of leniency towards the Kurdish fighters it hosts on its soil.

Ankara is seeking the extradition of dozens of activists residing on Swedish soil, whom it describes as “terrorists”.

A request impossible to satisfy according to the Swedish government, as independent courts have the final say in these cases.