Sweden enforces new anti-terrorism law to meet Türkiye's NATO demands

A new anti-terrorism law aiming to criminalise membership in terrorist organisations, one of Türkiye's main demands to ratify Sweden's NATO bid, has come into force in the Nordic country.

The law, implemented on Thursday, will bring up to four years in prison for those who participate in terrorist activities or cooperate with terrorist organisations.

This includes those who participate in activities with the intent to support, strengthen or encourage a terrorist organisation.

In an interview with the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter in April, Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said the legislation would come into force on June 1, adding that the new law would assuage Türkiye's concerns.

The PKK has "extensive work in Sweden to raise money and finance terrorist activities aimed at Türkiye," and uses Sweden as a base for drug sales and other activities that also harm Swedish society, the minister was quoted as saying in the daily.

Broader powers against terrorists

If there are aggravating reasons, the penalty for the law's targeted crimes will be a minimum of two years, which can be increased to a maximum of eight years for crimes deemed serious.

According to the law, those involved in crimes such as supplying weapons, ammunition, flammable and explosive materials, transportation support, and renting land and property to a terrorist organisation can be sentenced to up to four years in prison.

If there are aggravating reasons for these crimes, prison sentences ranging from 1.5 to 7 years will be imposed.

The law gives authorities much broader powers to detain and prosecute people who finance or otherwise support terrorist organisations.

Although Türkiye approved Finland's membership to NATO, it is waiting for Sweden to abide by a trilateral memorandum signed last June in Madrid to address Ankara’s security concerns.