Interpol appointment highlights abuses

By Jago Russell
‘Interpol should be judged by whether it continues to allow its systems to be used as a tool of persecution’, writes Jago Russell. 

I suspect China saw the appointment of Meng Hongwei as president of Interpol’s executive committee as a PR victory – evidence of China’s growing influence on the international stage. Thankfully, the occasion was used as an opportunity to highlight the country’s appalling rights record (New Interpol head is Chinese former deputy head of paramilitary police force, 11 November). 

China has misused Interpol to pursue dissidents across the globe. 

It is wrong, however, to suggest that Hongwei’s appointment will allow China to do this more often and more easily. 

These decisions, with enormous implications for the people they affect, are made by Interpol’s secretariat, headed by Jurgen Stock (the real leader of Interpol’s operations).
Under Stock, Interpol has started the long-overdue task of creating safeguards against the kinds of abuse suffered by Uighur activists pursued by China. 

Last week, Stock announced further much-needed reforms to maintain “the confidence and trust of national law enforcement and wider society in Interpol”. 

The detail of these reforms haven’t yet been published so it’s hard to predict whether they will be effective in weeding out abusive cases. 

Ultimately, Interpol should be judged by whether it continues to allow its systems to be used as a tool of persecution. 

If it fails to rise to this challenge, it will not only remain complicit in human rights abuse; but will also fail to meet the “highest legal standards” that its outgoing president last week recognised as crucial to its “credibility, legitimacy and effectiveness”.

The Nazi Interpol

The appointment of Meng Hongwei is alarming given China’s longstanding practice of trying to use Interpol to arrest dissidents and refugees abroad

The New York TimesMeng Hongwei, right, in Beijing in August. 

Interpol, the international law enforcement agency, has had a history of allowing its international database of fugitives to be used by authoritarian governments to persecute dissidents and critics. 

It is therefore deeply troubling that a senior Chinese security official will become the organization’s next president.
Interpol announced last week that Meng Hongwei, China’s vice minister of public security, was elected by members of the agency’s general assembly to serve as president for a four-year term. 

He is the first Chinese official to lead the agency.
Human rights lawyers and activists in China have been persecuted by the authorities for years. 

Some have been detained and harassed; dozens have been held in secret prisons without access to lawyers, according to Human Rights Watch.
“The appointment of Meng Hongwei is alarming given China’s longstanding practice of trying to use Interpol to arrest dissidents and refugees abroad,” Nicholas Bequelin, East Asia director of Amnesty International, said in a statement. 

“It seems at odds with Interpol’s mandate to work in the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
Beyond handling routine policing matters, China’s Ministry of Public Security protects the Communist Party and its leaders. 

This raises the possibility that Meng could use his influence at Interpol to target critics of the Chinese government. 

Meng steps into the post as Interpol embarks on an effort to systematically collect and share biometric information of suspected terrorists.
China and Russia are among the countries that have abused Interpol’s “red notice” database of information about fugitives. 

While the system is central to international law enforcement cooperation — preventing suspected terrorists from obtaining visas, for instance — it has been used to punish journalists, pro-democracy activists and human rights defenders. 

There is a mechanism for people to challenge red notice alerts, but it can be time-consuming and costly.
As Interpol’s president, Meng will run its executive committee, which plays a key role in setting the agenda for new initiatives and has oversight over the work of the secretary general, the day-to-day chief. 

His appointment calls into question the firmness of Interpol’s commitment “not only to refrain from any possible infringements of human rights, but also to actively promote the protection of human rights.”
When Interpol’s general assembly meets next year in Beijing, it should, at the very least, take steps to prevent the red notice database from being misused. 

It can also clarify and strengthen its human rights policy so that Interpol is used solely to share intelligence about legitimate threats and criminals.

The Nazi Interpol

Fears For Dissidents As China Security Czar is Appointed as the New Head of Interpol
By Dominique Rowe

Meng Hongwei (R), Chinese Vice Public Security Minister in Beijing, China, Aug. 26, 2016.

Global police body Interpol announced the appointment of its new chief Wednesday, China’s Vice Minister for public security Meng Hongwei.
Meng is the first Chinese national to take up the role as head of Interpol, but rights groups are concerned that the nomination will facilitate efforts to target Chinese dissidents living overseas, reports The Guardian.
“This is extraordinarily worrying given China’s longstanding practice of trying to use Interpol to arrest dissidents and refugees abroad,” Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East Asia, Nicholas Bequelin, told the Guardian on Thursday.
Bequelin added that Chinese police have a “political mandate” to protect the power of the Communist party.
As part of Xi Jinping’s far-reaching crackdown on corruption, last year, Beijing launched Operation Sky Net, a campaign to nab 100 suspected corrupt former Communist Party officials who had allegedly fled overseas. 

The names were placed on Interpol’s “Red Notice” list with the aim that the police body would help extradite them back to China.
Amnesty’s fear is that some of those on the list, rather than being guilty of graft, may be political dissidents whose real crimes exist only in the eyes of the Communist Party.


Chinese Official Named Head of Interpol, Drawing Criticism
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BEIJING — A top Chinese police official was elected president of Interpol on Thursday, setting off alarm bells among rights advocates over abuses and a lack of transparency within China's legal system, as well as the misuse of the police organization to attack Beijing's political opponents.
Vice Public Security Minister Meng Hongwei was named as the first Chinese to hold the post at the organization's general assembly on the Indonesian island of Bali, Interpol announced in a press release.
The Lyon, France-based International Criminal Police Organization has 190 member nations and has the power to issue "red notices." 

It's the closest instrument to an international arrest warrant in use today. 

Interpol circulates those notices to member countries listing people who are wanted for extradition.
While Interpol's charter officially bars it from undertaking "any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character," critics say some governments, primarily Russia and Iran, have abused the system to harass and detain opponents of their regimes. 

Interpol says it has a special vetting process to prevent that from happening.
Quoted in the Interpol release, Meng said he takes over at a time when the world is facing some of the most serious global public security challenges since World War II.
"Interpol, guided by the best set of principles and mechanisms to date, has made a significant contribution to promoting international police cooperation," Meng was quoted as saying. 

"Interpol should continue to adhere to these principles and strategies, while further innovating our work mechanisms in order to adapt to the changing security situation we see today."
Interpol's president is a largely symbolic but still influential figure who heads its executive committee responsible for providing guidance and direction and implementing decisions made by its general assembly. 

Interpol Secretary General Jurgen Stock is the organization's chief full-time official and heads the executive committee.
Meng, who takes over from Mireille Ballestrazzi of France for a four-year term, will assume his new duties immediately.
His election comes as Xi Jinping is seeking to give new momentum to his 4-year-old campaign against corruption, including a push to seek the return of former officials and other suspects who had fled abroad. 

China filed a list of 100 of its most-wanted suspects with Interpol in April 2014, about one third of whom have since been repatriated to face justice at home.
The anti-corruption drive is led by the Communist Party's internal watchdog body, the highly secretive Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, rather than the police, prompting questions about its transparency and fairness.
More than 1 million officials have been handed punishments ranging from lengthy prison terms to administrative demerits or demotions. 

While authorities deny their targets are selected for political purposes, several of the highest-profile suspects have been associated with Xi's predecessor Hu Jintao and other rivals.
China's police and judicial systems have been routinely criticized for abuses, including confessions under torture, arbitrary travel bans and the disappearance and detention without charges of political dissidents and their family members. 

That has prompted reluctance among many Western nations to sign extradition treaties with China or return suspects wanted for non-violent crimes.
China also stands accused of abducting independent book sellers who published tomes on sensitive political topics from Hong Kong and Thailand. 

U.S. officials have meanwhile complained that China has asked for the return of corruption suspects while providing little or no information about the allegations against them.
Given those circumstances, Meng's election is an "alarming prospect," said Maya Wang, Hong Kong-based researcher with Human Rights Watch.
"While we think it's important to fight corruption, the campaign has been politicized and undermines judicial independence," Wang said. 

Meng's election "will embolden and encourage abuses in the system," she said, citing recent reports of close Chinese ally Russia's use of Interpol to attack President Vladimir Putin's political opponents.
Nicholas Bequelin, Amnesty International's regional director for East Asia, tweeted: "This is extraordinarily worrying given China's longstanding practice of trying to use Interpol to arrest dissidents and refugees abroad."
At the same time, China's 3-decade-old economic boom has produced waves of embezzlement, bribery, corruption and other forms of white-collar crime that have forced the government to spread a wide net to track down suspects and their illicit earnings. 

China also says it faces security threats from cross-border "extremist" Islamic groups seeking to overthrow Chinese rule over the far-western region of Xinjiang.
Along with electing Meng, Interpol also approved a call for the "systematic collection and recording of biometric information as part of terrorist profiles" shared by the organization.
About 830 police chiefs and senior law enforcement officials from 164 countries joined in the four-day meeting. China became a member in 1984.