Sweden’s government will not extradite four people wanted by Turkey, who it says are linked to an American cleric it accuses of orchestrating a 2016 coup, the TT news agency reported on Thursday, without citing Reuters sources.

The extradition requests were made in 2019 and 2020, before Sweden and Finland signed a tripartite agreement with Turkey aimed at overcoming Ankara’s objections to the two Nordic countries joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Sweden’s high court ruled last summer that the four could not be extradited, TT reported, leaving the government with no choice but to comply with its ruling. The Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not comment on the case.

According to Agerpres, Turkey qualified a separate decision of the High Court in December to block the extradition of Turkish journalist Bulent Kenes as “very negative”.

A “video montage” that heightens the tension

The foreign ministry summoned Sweden’s ambassador to Ankara after Turkey on Thursday condemned a video montage filmed by a group close to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party in Sweden showing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hanging by his feet and being called a “dictator”, AFP and Reuters reported.

The latest incident comes as Turkey blocked Sweden, as well as Finland, from joining NATO in May, accusing it of harboring members of the PKK and its allies, which Ankara considers terrorists.