Ben Keith contributes to “A Legal Examination of Recent Extradition Proceedings about Turkish Citizens Abroad”, a new report by the London Advocacy Centre.

The report finds that Turkey persistently abuses the Interpol Red Notice system by issuing extradition requests for political offences as part of a systemic crushing of civil society, but that the Turkish regime routinely escapes international condemnation due to the country’s strategic importance to Europe and America.  

Since 2016, Turkey has issued 1133 extradition requests to 110 countries and deploys a devious practice of reporting suspected dissidents’ passports as stolen leading to arrest and a risk that they will be sent to Turkey without any formal extradition process.

The report highlights that while UK Courts are discharging individuals from politically motivated extradition requests, the judiciary shy away from commenting on the systemic decimation of the rule of law and human rights in Turkey since the failed coup against Erdogan in 2016.

"London Advocacy is a non-profit company that does advocacy work on human rights education and tries to raise awareness on human rights violations worldwide. In recent years, actions of transnational repression of authoritarian regimes ramped up. Abuse of the extradition mechanism is one of the tools deployed for this purpose."

London Advocacy published “A Legal Examination of Recent Extradition Proceedings about Turkish Citizens Abroad” on 20 September 2022. The report can be accessed in full here.