Ankara prosecutors investigate hanging of Erdoğan effigy in Sweden

Prosecutors in Ankara have opened an investigation into a group's protest in Sweden where an effigy of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was hung by the feet.

On Wednesday (January 11), a group held a demonstration in Stockholm, protesting Türkiye's requests from Sweden to extradite and deport "terror" suspects in order to approve its NATO membership bid.

The investigation came after President Erdoğan's criminal complaint.

"A criminal complaint has been filed with the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, demanding that an investigation be launched into the perpetrators due to the criminal acts targeting our President," Erdoğan's lawyer Huseyin Aydın said on Twitter.

Yesterday, Sweden's Ambassador to Ankara Staffan Herrstrom was summoned to the Foreign Ministry about the incident.

Since a trilateral memorandum concerning the issue was signed between Türkiye, Sweden and Finland, Sweden has extradited or deported several people.

Government officials from Türkiye, however, have repeatedly said what Sweden has done was not enough and they wanted to see more concrete steps. Ankara has accused Stockholm of providing a safe haven to "terrorists" from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the "Fetullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ)," an Islamic group held responsible for the 2016 coup attempt. (VK)