A decision by the Council of State (CoS), Greece’s highest administrative court, has cleared the last legal hurdle for the extradition of a 54-year-old Turkish businessman Ali Yesildag back to his home country.
The fourth section of the CoS ruled that the extradition of Yesildag is legal under European and Greek law.
The individual in question reportedly had close family and professional relations with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan before turning on the latter and accusing him of corruption.
He was detained just inside the Greek border with Turkey in a rural part of northeast Evros Prefecture in November 2023 after sneaking across the frontier.
An arrest warrant issued by a court in the city Bursa followed him to Greece, along with the specter of a 20-year prison term for intentional homicide, among other felony convictions.
An appeals court in northeast Greece had previously ruled in favor of the extradition, stating that the Greek justice ministry’s decision to hand over the fugitive to Turkish authorities was well-founded.
Yesildag had appealed the decision all the way up to the high court, claiming he faced a risk of being accused of other offenses if extradited, such as terrorism, as well as a risk of torture and degrading treatment.
