Sweden’s government on Thursday introduced a bill to toughen anti-terrorism legislation and criminalize links with terrorist organizations amid rising tensions with Turkey over the country’s accession to NATO.
The Minister of Justice, Gunnar Strommer, has indicated that the proposal includes criminalizing «being part of terrorist groups», although until now the law only criminalized the commission of terrorist acts.
With this measure, the Swedish authorities are seeking to comply with Ankara’s demands following the trilateral agreement reached with Finland during the NATO summit in Madrid in June.
Strommer has stressed that this is a «significant expansion» in legal terms. «The government believes there is a need to criminalize these issues. We need to stand up strongly against terrorist threats and the terrorists themselves,» he said during a press conference, according to reports in the daily ‘Dagens Nyheter’.
«My strong opinion on the agreement that exists between Sweden, Finland and Turkey is very clear (…) When we introduce a powerful tool in legislation, we have completely different measures at our disposal,» he said.
The new legal text includes as crimes «organizing meetings considered as terrorist and being in possession of material considered as such», among other issues. The bill will be submitted to Parliament next March with a view to its entry into force in June. However, for it to enter into force it is necessary to amend the Constitution.
Since submitting their official membership application in May 2022 at the height of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Sweden and Finland have been trying to win Turkish approval to join the bloc. However, Ankara has asked for a series of guarantees, especially from Sweden, related precisely to dissidents and alleged members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). It has accused the country of «harboring terrorists».
Over the last month, there has been an increase in public support for Kurdish groups that Turkey considers terrorists, which has led to an increase in tension between the two countries, something that seems to jeopardize the talks. The situation has even led the Finnish government to put on the table the possibility of going ahead with the accession process without Sweden.
Stockholm, for its part, insists that it has fulfilled all the commitments made in the pact, but Ankara warns that, as things stand, the Swedish government cannot «wait» for the final endorsement of Swedish accession.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
