Sweden said on Thursday it had rejected a Turkish extradition request for two men wanted for their alleged involvement in the so-called Gulen movement.
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has blamed the Gulen movement for masterminding a bloody coup bid by a renegade army faction in July 2016.
Erdogan made the issue of extraditions a key demand before agreeing to ratify Stockholm's NATO membership in 2024, accusing Sweden of being a haven for "terrorists".
"On November 13 this year, the government decided to reject two extradition requests from Turkey after the Supreme Court found obstacles," a Swedish justice ministry official told AFP.
He referred to Supreme Court rulings concerning Turkish citizens Muharrem Ozad, 36, and Abdullah Bozkurt, 54, dating from 3 July and 29 October respectively.
Turkey accused Ozad of being a member of an "armed terrorist organisation" - the Gulen movement - because he had a bank account at a bank tied to the organisation, had ties to people in the organisation, and lived and worked in student housing that belonged to the organisation, according to the Supreme Court.
Ankara meanwhile accused Bozkurt, a journalist, of "leading an armed terrorist organisation", "spreading propaganda for a terrorist organisation", "breaching confidentiality", and "revealing information of national security and political interests", the court said in its ruling.
In both cases, the Supreme Court found the men could not be extradited because the crimes of which they were accused by Turkey are not punishable by a prison sentence of more than one year in Sweden.
In Sweden, the government makes the final decision on extradition requests but cannot grant a request to another state if the Supreme Court rules against it.
Turkey blocked Sweden's bid to join NATO for 17 months.
The standoff ended when Stockholm agreed to crack down on extremist groups, lift an arms embargo dating back to Turkey's 2019 military incursion into Syria, and committed to expediently consider Turkish extradition requests.