BSQ partner Roger Sahota has been acting for a high net worth businessman in making submissions to Interpol’s Commission for the Control of Files (“CCiF) asking for the deletion of an illegitimate red notice. Earlier this week BSQ were informed that the CCiF had in response to our representations agreed to delete the Red Notice. The Red Notice had been issued by a member state of the UN security Council.

BSQ submitted to the CCiF that the illegitimate Red Notice – which alleged that our client was involved in a complicated and high value form of financial crime – was in fact politically motivated.  BSQ’s client was a high-profile businessman and public figure who had been targeted by his government for political reasons.

Interpol’s constitution prohibits it from taking part in activity of a political nature. The rules governing Red Notices can be found in INTERPOL’s Constitution and its Rules on the Processing of Data (“RPD”). A red notice can be deleted from Interpol’s database if it is politically motivated on the basis it breaches Article 3 of the INTERPOL Constitution. This provides that:

It is strictly forbidden for the Organization to undertake any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character.

Disturbingly, the Red Notice in this case reflected a growing trend where many non-democratic regimes are increasingly seeking to manipulate Interpol’s procedures by issuing politicised Red Notices.

State sanctioned abuse of the Interpol Red Notice system is sadly an increasingly common feature of international relations.

The abuse can be obvious – as with the targeting of opposition politicians or minority group leaders by the Government of a one-party state.

But it can also be more subtle.

Our review of Interpol’s record and its case law shows a pattern emerging of certain Governments targeting citizens who are business leaders, high net worth individuals or other public figures such as sportsmen or celebrities. These individuals will not be involved in politics or seen as politicians.  Normally the allegations made them will feature highly complex allegations of fraud or corruption.

On the surface these allegations may look superficially convincing particularly when the Government concerned announces they are determined to crack down and weed out corruption. 

However, the underlying motive for these type of abusive red notices is generally political. In practice they are used as a tool by autocratic governments to target their opponents and silence the democratic right to free speech and peaceful protest or to target the enemies of a regime.

An investigation by the Council of Europe in 2019 confirmed this when it found “that Interpol’s procedures had been frequently abused for political or corrupt reasons by certain countries.”

It is against this background that Interpol today announced that it was taking steps to restrict Russia’s access to it’s database – see https://www.interpol.int/News-and-Events/News/2022/Ukraine-INTERPOL-General-Secretariat-statement A press release from Interpol announced these changes were intended;

“To prevent any potential misuse of INTERPOL’s channels in relation to the targeting of individuals within or beyond the conflict in Ukraine, heightened supervision and monitoring measures in relation to Russia have now been implemented by the Secretary General, a decision which was endorsed by the Executive Committee.”

The announcement means that the National Crime Bureau in Moscow can no longer post Red Notices or diffusions on Interpol’s database. Interpol’s General Secretariat will filter and monitor all Russian requests to see if they are complaint before they are disseminated to other members of Interpol.

You can learn more about our specialisation in challenging Red Notices here or view more information about our extradition solicitors and former cases. 

If you are require advice and assistance in challenging an Interpol Red Notice or diffusion or advice on any international criminal law matters please contact our Criminal Solicitors in our London office.