Controversial Emirati candidate, risk of Chinese influence: Interpol in troubled waters

This is a high-risk election for Interpol. The prestigious international collaboration agency between the police services of 194 countries is preparing to elect its future president at its general assembly, which is to take place in Istanbul from 23 to 24 November. And the Emirati General Ahmed Naser al-Raisi, favorite to succeed South Korean Kim Jong-yang, is far from unanimous. Very far.

The daily The world thus wonders if there will “soon be a torturer at the head of Interpol”, in an article published Tuesday, November 16. The International Federation for Human Rights judges, in an open letter published at the end of October, that the international police organization would flout all the principles of respect for human rights if it agreed to be led by someone like Ahmed Naser al-Raisi.

Several complaints in France

In the United Kingdom, one of the first countries to sound the alarm in April 2021, former Attorney General David Calvert-Smith even wrote a 48-page report to enumerate all the reasons for Interpol to reject the candidacy of the Emirati general. For the moment, Slovak Šárka Havránková, currently vice-president of Interpol, is the only other candidate for the post.

Why so much hatred? After all, Ahmed Naser al-Raisi, inspector general of the UAE’s interior ministry since 2015, already sits on Interpol’s executive committee, where he is the organization’s representative for the entire Asia zone.

This Emirati “big cop” also boasts on his personal website an impressive CV : in addition to a career of more than forty years in the police, he claims to hold a doctorate from London Metropolitan University, an MBA from Coventry University, a management diploma from Cambridge University and a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of Otterbein (Ohio).

But this academic path does not forgive the many human rights violations that would be attributable to it, assure its many detractors. Ahmed Naser al-Raisi is thus targeted by three complaints for acts of torture filed in September in France – under the universal jurisdiction of France in this kind of business.

In particular, he is accused of being responsible, as the boss of the Emirati prison system, for “acts of barbarism” inflicted on the Emirati poet and blogger Ahmed Mansoor, sentenced in 2018 to a ten-year prison sentence for ” reputation of the state “.

He is also widely held responsible for the arrest in November 2018 of Matthew Hedges, a young British researcher who came to Dubai for a study trip and suspected by the Emirati authorities of espionage. Sentenced to life imprisonment and tortured, Matthew Hedges was finally released less than a year later, following an intense campaign of pressure from London, which had threatened to sever diplomatic relations with the Emirates.

And these are just two of the most publicized examples of the treatment inflicted on prisoners in the prison system run by the services of Ahmed Naser al-Raisi and considered one of the “most arbitrary in the world” by NGOs like the Gulf Center for Human Rights.

An Emirati donation of 50 million euros

And it is not only because of the sad record of this general in terms of human rights that many voices have been raised to oppose his election as president of Interpol. “This would also discredit Interpol’s action in certain areas such as the fight against terrorism”, assured the Gulf Center for Human Rights in a conference on the sidelines of the 48^e session of the UN Human Rights Council last month. “This is one of Interpol’s core missions, and Ahmed Naser al-Raisi enforces legislation in his country that defines the crime of terrorism so broadly that any peaceful protest can be considered an act of terrorism “, continues this NGO.

The election of Ahmed Naser al-Raisi at the head of Interpol would also be very bad news for all those who praise the independence of this international organization, writes in his report David Calvert-Smith, the former attorney general from the United Kingdom. Interpol, in fact, received in 2017 a record donation of 50 million euros from the United Arab Emirates, and “one can wonder how much this money does not improve the chances” of the Emirati general to be elected.

“Interpol would play the game of the United Arab Emirates which, for several years, have spent lavishly to buy a good image in the eyes of international opinion,” warns the Gulf Center for Human Rights. Succeeding in leading such a prestigious institution would be a diplomatic success for this Gulf country.

The election of a new president is not the only sensitive issue on the agenda of the next Interpol session. The likely arrival of a top Chinese policeman – Hu Binchen – to the organization’s executive committee has not gone unnoticed either. In an open letter published on November 15, parliamentarians from twenty countries call for blocking an election “which would give Beijing the green light to continue using Interpol to export its policy of repression against the Chinese Muslim minority of Uyghurs “.

A reference to another pot that Interpol has been dragging around for several years: the deemed abusive use of red notices by authoritarian regimes. These documents, often perceived as the equivalent of an international arrest warrant, no longer serve only to track down the worst criminals around the world, but “they are increasingly used by certain countries to prosecute beyond their borders. political opponents “, underlines the Guardian, which devoted a long investigation to this drift in October 2021.

Inflation of red notices

China, Russia but also the United Arab Emirates are considered to be the countries that use red notices the most for political purposes, notes the British daily. The number of Red Notices issued by local Interpol offices has skyrocketed from 1,400 at the start of the 21st century^e century to nearly 13,000 in 2019. This makes it almost impossible for Interpol’s services to spot all abuses.

This is how the United Arab Emirates used these tools to prosecute individuals who were simply accused of having debts to Emirati banks. “It is using very effective weapons to track down the biggest criminals in order to settle civil disputes,” said David Calvert-Smith.

For its part, China has multiplied red notices to complicate the lives of Uyghur activists exiled abroad. “Those targeted by these red notices can no longer move from one country to another without fear of being arrested and extradited to China,” notes The Guardian.

Jürgen Stock, Interpol’s general secretary since 2019, admitted that there was a problem with the misuse of these famous documents, while stressing to the Guardian that this “only concerns about 5% of cases”. What makes all the same hundreds of individuals who have these swords of Damocles above the head for reasons more political than legal.

Missed opportunity

The possible elections of the Emirati General Ahmed Naser Al-Raisi and of the Chinese Hu Binchen would only reinforce this “politicization” by a handful of countries of the powerful transnational police institution, regret the various human rights organizations that are involved. have been mobilized in recent months.

For them, it would be a missed opportunity. Interpol has seen its fair share of controversy in the past. Two of its ex-presidents, the Chinese Meng Hongwei in 2018 and the South African Jackie Selebi in 2008, have been accused of corruption and imprisoned in their respective countries.

In 2015, Interpol also had to end in disaster a lucrative partnership with Fifa, because of accusations of corruption weighing on the powerful sports federation. “We can not ask Interpol to know everything about its partners, but for an organization responsible for tracking down corruption, it has not shown great flair in this affair”, recalls David Calvert-Smith in his report .

Controversial Presidents and Questionable Funding Sources: Past casseroles resemble what is criticized today at Interpol. It would be enough for him to turn this page not to elect the “favorite” to the post of president and to leave the Chinese policeman at the door of the executive committee, judge all those who sound the alarm bells in recent months.

Contacted by France 24, Interpol was keen to qualify the scope of criticism towards the favorite in the election by recalling that “the post of director is not paid and is part-time. It is the secretary general, Jürgen Stock , which manages the day-to-day business “. Correct, but the fact remains that it is the president who “appears at the top of the organization chart,” recalls David Calvert-Smith.

Interpol also wanted to tell France 24 that all “red notices are checked by a special task force”. A team set up specifically by Jürgen Stock to reduce the number of problematic red notices. This is a step in the right direction, but it does not mean that the problem has disappeared entirely.