{"id":520,"date":"2021-04-29T12:32:05","date_gmt":"2021-04-29T11:32:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.avtuae.com\/en\/?p=520"},"modified":"2021-04-29T12:32:06","modified_gmt":"2021-04-29T11:32:06","slug":"interpol-too-susceptible-to-abuse-and-uae-security-chief-unsuitable-for-presidency-report-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.avtuae.com\/en\/?p=520","title":{"rendered":"Interpol too susceptible to abuse and UAE security chief ‘unsuitable’ for presidency, report finds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The new paper points to large financial donations by a country where ‘torture and repression is a stock in trade’<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By<\/em>Jamie Johnson\u00a0WASHINGTON7 April 2021 \u2022 6:30am<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Washington:\u00a0<\/strong>Interpol is too susceptible to abuse by \u201cdespotic regimes\u201d and its next president should not come from the United Arab Emirates because of its \u201csystematic breaches of human rights,\u201d according to a new report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a scathing assessment of the undue influence of the UAE on the international policing organisation, the paper points to large financial donations and a \u201cmisuse\u201d of the red notice system by a country where torture and repression is \u201ca stock in trade\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, the London Telegraph<\/em> revealed that Major General Nasser Ahmed al-Raisi, the UAE security chief was running to become president of Interpol – a prestigious role which would give him insight into and influence over police forces across the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report, written by former British director of public prosecutions Sir David Calvert-Smith and titled Undue influence: The UAE and Interpol<\/em>, says he is unsuitable for the role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMajor General al-Raisi sits at the top of a repressive justice system in the UAE and has been directly implicated in the torture and detention in a number of high-profile cases,\u201d the report says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn all circumstances, his election would send a message to the world that Interpol has little or no respect for respect human rights and will turn a blind eye to torture and repression.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raisi has been accused of presiding over the torture of British citizens Matthew Hedges and Ali Ahmad, who were held in the UAE and claim to have been beaten up, electrocuted, denied food and water and given a cocktail of high strength drugs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Questions have also been asked over the financial arrangements between Interpol and the Emirates, which include Abu Dhabi and Dubai.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The statutory fees paid by each member country are supposed to be based on their economic weight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in 2017, when the UAE\u2019s statutory contribution was \u20ac231,064 ($359,000), it made a \u20ac50 million donation to the Interpol Foundation for a Safer World – an organisation which lobbies governments and companies to support Interpol\u2019s work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It appears that the UAE is the only country to have contributed to the foundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is difficult to escape the conclusion that the Interpol Foundation for a Safer World\u2019s sole purpose is to be a channel by which to funnel cash from the UAE government into Interpol,\u201d the report says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The presidential election was supposed to take place in 2020 at the Interpol general assembly but was postponed because of the pandemic and a new date has not been set. It was meant to be held in the UAE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Candidates are not publicly announced beforehand and the voting is done in private – a process described in the report as \u201cshady and undemocratic\u201d, but the Telegraph<\/em> has seen campaign material for Raisi, which has been passed round to the 196 member states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report concludes that \u201cThe machinery of Interpol is too susceptible to abuse by despotic regimes including the UAE and therefore, the next president of Interpol should not come from the UAE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is clear that Major General al-Raisi would be the wrong choice for president of Interpol.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a statement, Interpol said: \u201cWhilst it would be inappropriate to comment on a document which the General Secretariat has neither contributed towards, nor seen, it should be made very clear that Interpol\u2019s independence and neutrality remain key, and no one country has any influence on the work of the organisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe General Secretariat welcomes open and informed debate, but will address any false or misleading claims in the report once the content has been appropriately reviewed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UAE\u2019s Ministry of Interior was approached for comment but did not respond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The London, Telegraph<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The new paper points to large financial donations by a country where ‘torture and repression is a stock in trade’ ByJamie Johnson\u00a0WASHINGTON7 April 2021 \u2022 6:30am Washington:\u00a0Interpol is too susceptible to abuse by \u201cdespotic regimes\u201d and its next president should not come from the United Arab Emirates because of its \u201csystematic breaches of human rights,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":521,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-comment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.avtuae.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.avtuae.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.avtuae.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.avtuae.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.avtuae.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=520"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.avtuae.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":522,"href":"http:\/\/www.avtuae.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520\/revisions\/522"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.avtuae.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.avtuae.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.avtuae.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.avtuae.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}