The 4th Department of the State Council (StE) considered the decision of the Deputy Minister of Justice to extradite 54-year-old businessman Ali Yesildag to Turkey as legal and in line with European and Greek legislation.
Ali Yesildag had close family and professional ties to Recep Tayyip Erdogan before accusing the Turkish president of corruption.
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 from the Bursa Public Prosecutor’s Office was forwarded to our country for the execution of an arrest warrant and extradition of Ali Yesildag to the neighboring country in order to execute the decision of the Bursa court of 1.6.2022. With this decision of the Turkish court, he was sentenced to a total prison term of 1,665 days and, by merger, to 19 years and 23 months.
The Turkish citizen was convicted under the Turkish Penal Code for premeditated murder, burglary in a house or shop, causing injury with a weapon, collaborating with several other persons to purchase, transport or possess weapons and bullets without authorization, and robbery at night with other persons. These offences correspond in the Greek Penal Code to those of manslaughter, robbery, theft, illegal possession of weapons, etc.
The Thracian Appeals Board supported the extradition of Ali Yesildag to Turkey, the decision of which was overturned last February by the 7th Criminal Division of the Supreme Court.
The 54-year-old man subsequently appealed to the Supreme Court, requesting that the Deputy Justice Minister’s decision to extradite him to Turkey be annulled.
In the CoE, among others, he argued that with his extradition to Turkey, there is the possibility of facing other criminal charges for other crimes, such as terrorism, but also of being tortured, subjected to cruel and inhuman treatment, etc.
And all this because in the past he had personal, family and business relations with Mr. Erdogan and then, after the breakdown of these relations, he began to make public disclosures to the Turkish media about the financial scandals in which the Turkish president was allegedly involved and other government officials.
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.
The Council of Europe, chaired by Vice-President Spyridoula Chrysikopoulou and Rapporteur Ioannis Papagiannis, rejected as unfounded all of Ali Yesildag’s allegations and upheld the Deputy Justice Minister’s decision to extradite him to Turkey.
The Council of Europe, chaired by Vice-President Spyridoula Chrysikopoulou and Rapporteur Ioannis Papagiannis, rejected as unfounded all of Ali Yesildag’s allegations and upheld the Deputy Justice Minister’s decision to extradite him to Turkey.
Source: RES-MPE