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Red Notice can be challenged: Interpol

Staff Report

LAHORE: A person subject to a Red Notice may challenge it and his/her request is examined carefully to ensure the notice in question does not contravene Interpol’s constitution, the Interpol press office told Daily Times on Thursday.

The newspaper had asked Interpol about the issuance of warrants of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and her husband Asif Ali Zardari.

The press office said a challenge by an individual should be submitted to the Commission for the Control of Interpol Files (CCF), which would then make a recommendation to the secretary general. A challenge by a member country should be submitted to the General Secretariat, the press office added.

The General Secretariat reviewed all Red Notices before and after they were published in order to ensure their consistency with Interpol’s rules, and in particular with Article 3 of the organisation’s constitution that stated that it was “strictly forbidden for the organisation to undertake any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character”, the press office said, adding that Interpol took the prohibition seriously.

Whenever an Article 3 issue was raised, it was examined carefully, the press office said. That entailed a thorough review by Interpol’s Office of Legal Affairs and additional information from both parties might be required to either uphold or rescind the Red Notice, the press office added.

If the General Secretariat determined that the case did not contravene Article 3, the member country that brought the challenge could take the matter to the Executive Committee, and ultimately to the General Assembly, Interpol’s supreme governing body, the press office said.

A Red Notice was a notification that a bona fide arrest warrant existed for an individual suspected of committing a crime, or convicted by a court, in any of Interpol’s 184 member countries, the press office said, adding that a Red Notice was not an international arrest warrant.

Red Notices were only issued if the requesting Interpol National Central Bureau (NCB) had provided all the information required by the General Secretariat, including details of a valid arrest warrant for the country in question, the press office said.

Many of Interpol’s member countries considered a Red Notice a valid request for provisional arrest, especially if they were linked to the requesting country via a bilateral extradition treaty, the press office said, adding that in cases where arrests were made based on a Red Notice, these were made by national police officials in Interpol member countries. Interpol’s General Secretariat did not send officers to arrest individuals who were the subject of a Red Notice, and could not demand any member country arrest the subject of a Red Notice, the press office said.

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