Tribune. As Emirati Ahmed Naser Al-Raisi, former head of the United Arab Emirates security forces, targeted by several complaints of torture and human rights violations, takes office as president of Interpol, it is legitimate to wonder . Because this choice, beyond the person it designates, would it reveal a dysfunction? Dysfunction denounced for some time by NGOs, and whose lawyers that we are have gradually deplored the consequences in terms of public freedoms. In particular when it comes to “red notices”, these international wanted notices issued by the organization, at the request of member countries, in order to allow the arrest of people wanted outside their borders, used and abused by the main totalitarian regimes. However, Interpol’s international headquarters are in Lyon, which necessitates France’s duty to react.
Everyone knows Interpol: an organization dedicated to global police cooperation, which has 195 States Parties, several regional centers, and a general secretariat (in Lyon) where nearly 1,000 employees work, with an operating budget of 145 million euros for 2021.
But beyond its stated objective of “Create a safer world”, the procedures are opaque and without control, neither of the States, nor of justice. An absence of safeguards all the more serious as the lack of transparency creates the risk of possible manipulation by authoritarian leaders. The proof is provided by the most famous of its instruments – the red notices – terrible instruments, comparable to letters of seal, because very little motivated and devoid of judicial or administrative control!
More than 66,000 Red Notices are in circulation today, of which less than 8,000 are public. Thus, most of the people concerned do not learn it until the moment of crossing the border. And, even before they can seize the Interpol Files Control Commission (CCF), police and judicial cooperation gets carried away, with serious consequences: arrests, placements in detention, extraditions to states that are sometimes disrespectful. of public freedoms.
Misuse of process unpunished
In theory, Red Notices are only issued when they comply with Interpol’s rules, namely that they do not pursue political objectives and respect fundamental rights. But in practice, more and more authoritarian states are using them against political opponents or public figures likely to undermine their power, which is an abuse of procedure, unfortunately unpunished.
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