Thursday, November 25, 2021
Strong criticism of the new boss
Interpol elects major despite allegations of torture
The new President of Interpol is from the United Arab Emirates. The police organization appoints Al-Raisi to be their boss. This is despite the fact that several torture allegations have been filed against the major general.
Major General Ahmed Nasser Al-Raisi, who has been criticized for allegations of torture, has been elected as the new President of the international police organization Interpol. Interpol announced on Twitter that Al-Raisi had been chosen as the successor to South Korean Kim Jong Yang in Istanbul. There were major reservations from human rights activists and members of the European Parliament against Al-Raisi’s candidacy.
Interpol regularly elects a new boss every four years. It plays a largely symbolic role; the most important decisions at Interpol are made by the General Assembly made up of representatives of the member states. The general secretary is in charge of the day-to-day work at the duty station in Lyon, France. The German Jürgen Stock took over this position in 2014. In October 2019, he was confirmed for a second five-year term.
Despite the largely representative role of the Interpol president, critics fear that the police authorities will lose their reputation when the post is filled with Al-Raisi. “We are deeply convinced that the election of Major General Al-Raisi would damage Interpol’s reputation and seriously affect the organization’s ability to carry out its mission effectively,” said a letter from three MEPs in mid-November EU Commission head Ursula von der Leyen, signed by Marie Arena, the head of the subcommittee for human rights.
From the point of view of critics, Al-Raisi stands for an aggressive security apparatus in which people who are critical of the government are arbitrarily arrested or even tortured. Lawsuits related to allegations of torture have been brought against him in at least five countries. Human Rights Watch and 18 other human rights organizations accused Al-Raisi in October of last year of systematically taking action against the peaceful opposition in the United Arab Emirates as “part of the United Arab Emirates’ security apparatus”. The organization Gulf Center for Human Rights (GCHR) accuses Al-Raisi of torturing the government critic Ahmed Mansur, who has been imprisoned since 2017. This is in a tiny cell with no mattress. He also has no access to medical care or sanitary facilities.
Emirates second largest contributor
The Emirates had already started making large-scale donations to Interpol in 2015 and raised the question of whether the country wanted to buy influence with them. The organization, based in Lyon, lives on the contributions of the 195 member states. The Emirates are the second largest contributor after the US.
Interpol is the largest police organization in the world, has existed since 1923 and has more than 190 countries as members. The organization coordinates the cooperation of police authorities around the globe in the fight against organized crime, terrorism and other offenses. It does not have its own police force, does not conduct its own investigations and does not issue any arrest warrants. Rather, Interpol publishes notes in various categories in order to call on the authorities of its member countries to cooperate in specific cases.
The best-known and most important of the eight categories of notice is the so-called Red Notice, in which information is provided about suspected criminals who are wanted by one country but may be in another. The basis is a national arrest warrant, which can then be carried out by the police in the country concerned. How the police concerned proceed is not determined by Interpol.
Another benefit of Interpol membership is access to huge databases of crimes such as drug trafficking and child abuse, missing persons, unresolved deaths and terrorist activities. In the databases, investigative authorities around the world can search for fingerprints, DNA profiles, stolen travel documents or stolen weapons and art objects.