Controversial news from the US press: criminals have Turkish citizenship in their eyes

The accusation that Turkey’s granting of citizenship to investors and those buying property in the country allowed international criminal gangs to evade prosecution was on the agenda of the world press.

US-based Vice News, in its story titled “Gangsters Have Found a New Way to Avoid Getting Caught: Being Turks,” drew attention to the rapid increase in the number of fugitives who later became citizens. Turks. Speaking to the news site, European officials reported that they were concerned about the use of Turkey’s citizenship law by drug traffickers, who are trying to avoid prosecution in other countries, and Turkey’s refusal to extradite new citizens.

BARON WAS CAUGHT IN Türkiye

In the news, it was recalled that Rawa Majid, an Iraqi national drug trafficker wanted by Interpol and captured in Marmaris last year, became a Turkish citizen in 2020 with a special program for investors. The extradition of Majid, nicknamed ‘Baron’, wanted for drug-related crimes in Sweden, to this country was rejected by Turkey.

Drug trafficking and murder suspect Jos Leijdekkers is on the list of most wanted criminals in the Netherlands

Speaking to Politico, Swedish prosecutor Henrik Söderman said: “The Turkish authorities said that extradition is impossible because Rawa Majid is a Turkish citizen,” while European officials who spoke to Vice News stated that the problem with Turkish citizenship goes further. beyond this case. The sources said that an increasing number of drug traffickers are trying to obtain residence permits in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

CITIZENSHIP FOR HALF A MILLION DOLLARS…

“The United Arab Emirates, especially Dubai, are known as places that grant residence permits to cartel members and do not respond to the extradition process, but Turkey, which actually grants citizenship to anyone with half a million dollars, is another issue,” said a Belgian official. the said. “There may be a dozen smugglers using Turkish passports between the Netherlands and Belgium alone,” said the official, who did not give his name.

A Dutch official, on the other hand, claimed that drug trafficker Jos Leijdekkers, who is on the country’s most-wanted criminal list and has a 200,000-euro bounty on his head, also uses a Turkish passport, saying: “According to the Turkish constitution , cannot be sent abroad to be judged”. “It is not easy to inspect private planes between Dubai and Türkiye. Leijdekkers, who owns property in both countries, travels back and forth between the two countries without fear of arrest.