How does Interpol work? Interpol Red Card
The Interpol is an international organization, which includes 192 countries, the main function is to compile and maintain databases for providing them to law enforcement agencies of all countries, which further have the opportunity to use the data to search for criminals.
Law enforcement agencies around the world in increasing frequency resort to the use of Interpol’s capabilities to carry out their functions, which increases the efficiency of Interpol’s work on the implementation of its information exchange function between police departments of different countries.
The International notifications of Interpol have important value in the daily activities of an organization to fulfill its main functional duties, namely: searching for criminals and missing persons, sharing operational information concerning the search for members of criminal groups, identifying unidentified corpses, and informing law enforcement agencies of member states about the threats of terrorist acts.
Besides, the international notifications of Interpol are used by the international criminal tribunals and the International Criminal Court to search for individuals prosecuted for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Currently, there are six types of Interpol notifications, the upper right corner of which is marked with the emblem of the organization of one of the six colors – red (Red Notice), blue (Blue Notice), green (Green Notice), yellow (Yellow Notice), black (Black Notice) and orange (Orange Notice), as well as a new one, the seventh type – a special international notification issued jointly with the United Nations (United Nation Notice). In the Russian Federation, the exchange of information through the Interpol, including the requests for issuing international notifications, is carried out in accordance with the provisions of the Instruction on organizing information support for cooperation through Interpol, approved by the Order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, the Ministry of Justice of Russia, the Federal Security Service of Russia, the Federal Guards Service of Russia, the Federal Drug Control Service Of Russia, Federal Customs Service of Russia of October 6, 2006 N 786/310/470/454/333/971-Registered in the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation on November 3, 2006 N 8437.
The most frequently issued international notice of Interpol is the notice with a red corner (Red Notice). This notice requires the law enforcement agencies of the Interpol member states to arrest the wanted person with a view to a subsequent decision by the judicial authorities on his extradition to the country initiating the search. The legal basis for issuing such a notice is an arrest warrant or court order issued by the judicial authorities of the country concerned. Many Interpol member countries consider this notice to be the legal basis for the preliminary arrest of the person in respect of whom it has been issued. The General Secretariat is authorized by the Interpol General Assembly to refuse to issue an Interpol notice with a red angle, in case the notice does not contain all the relevant information necessary to make a request for provisional arrest. The provided information is also checked to prevent violations of Art. 3 of the Charter of an organization that bans Interpol from interfering in any activity of a political, military, religious or racial nature.
A vivid example of the use of the Interpol red order, which is widely publicized in the world, is a warrant issued at the request of the United States for former FIFA officials. This warrant was submitted to the competent authorities of Switzerland for execution and was promptly executed. The “Red warrant” is valid only within the jurisdiction of this country, and the role of Interpol is to assist national law enforcement agencies in identifying or locating the wanted person. The warrant is not international; therefore, the Interpol cannot oblige the participating countries to detain a person who is on the wanted list.
The notification of the Interpol with a blue corner (Blue Notice) is issued with the aim of establishing control over the movement and location of a person suspected or accused of committing a crime. The state initiating the notification may request from the General Secretariat and Interpol member states any criminal information about the person and other information that may be useful during the investigation of the criminal case. The notification of the Interpol with a green corner (Green Notice) may be issued in relation to a person undergoing an operational accounting case when there is no procedural decision to recognize him as a suspect or accused in a criminal case. In accordance with this notice, secret police monitoring of such persons and control of their movements is being established. The notification is issued only if there is confirmed information about the intentions of the person to go abroad.
Interpol search operations can be classified into four types:
- search for criminals with a view to their extradition;
- search for suspects in order to monitor their behavior;
- search for missing persons;
- search for stolen property.
In the practice of Interpol, there are two types of investigation: regular and urgent. They begin in the presence with one of two documents: a warrant for the arrest of a wanted person or a court sentence on imposing a sentence of imprisonment.
What can lawyer and attorneys of our RPI Solutions company in a situation when our client is threatened with this kind of international search activities. It is no secret that the legal system of any state should be based on the main principle – the principle of presumption of innocence. A detained or arrested person on an Interpol international warrant is entitled to submit to the court in the host country of detention, personally or through his legal representative, his arguments and evidence concerning the legality and sufficient substantiation of those legal facts that formed the basis of the issued international warrant for the arrest and subsequent extradition. There are episodes when criminal cases are fabricated and is quite often in the countries of the former USSR, in such cases the local “Themis” wants to use illegally the possibilities of Interpol for the illegal extradition of its citizen to the country of his former residence, for further illegal execution of punishment. In this case, this is not justice, but often settling accounts between various clans or commercial groups that have a strong influence on the law enforcement agencies of their country, which were unreasonably using the above-mentioned international legal instruments of the Interpol.
In the presence of such situation, of course, it is necessary to use the services of only narrow practitioners who are aware of all the specifics of local court decision making on the extradition of a particular detained citizen to the country that issued the Interpol red order. After all, often there is very little time to organize effective legal protection at a court hearing. It happens that between the detention of a client by local police officers and the time of the transfer of the detainee to the court it takes only a day or even few hours! And in this short time, it is necessary to obtain evidence of the illegal issuance of an Interpol warrant, to examine them and to conduct a court session in defense of the detainee. Such work requires a very responsible and professional approach. Our lawyers have such necessary experience.
We give an example from recent law practice. The well-known Ukrainian state functionary (the head of the State Investment Project of Ukraine), Vladislav Kaskiv, was detained by the Panama division of the Interpol in August 2016 during a trip to Costa Rica on the basis of an appeal from Ukraine, which accused him of abusing authority as the head of the National projects. But already in December 2016, Interpol canceled the earlier decision due to the violation of procedures by Ukraine and political motives of persecution. The letter of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Panama states that: “Mr. Vladislav Kaskiv cannot be convicted or charged for criminal cases (crimes) other than those directly specified in the extradition request”. The refusal of Panama to extradite Vladislav Kaskiv according to the Interpol red warrant, not only proves at the international level the unlawful actions of the law enforcement agencies of Ukraine towards its client but also significantly complicates the extradition of other Ukrainians who are being persecuted by the authorities.
There is a fair amount of such cases where experienced international lawyers managed to find significant shortcomings both in the international arrest and extradition warrant and in national decisions of competent authorities which are taken as a basis. Now we even going to issue a brochure with similar judicial cases that have occurred in various countries of the world.
If necessary, you or your representatives can discuss with us the situations that are similar to above-stated, we are ready to meet with you at a pre-scheduled time, to discuss and to work productively for the benefit of a specific person who appeared in a difficult life situation.
The international consulting center RPI Solutions offers legal assistance to the clients who appeared in similar situations. We will help to achieve the removal of property arrests, if they were imposed without a reason, to collect an evidence base testifying to the innocence of the client, to prevent the investigative activities that do not have sufficient grounds.
Our company specializes in solving legal issues of the clients who are illegally detained and arrested by Interpol. We help to prove the innocence of the client, to collect evidence of innocence, we control the conduct of the proceedings and take part in the consideration of the case, as the legal representatives of the defendant. Helping a person who appeared in a difficult situation, we use all legal methods, which allows achieving justice in any country. In order to use our services, you or your representative will need to contact us and tell in detail about the problem, together we will definitely find a way out, we will solve even the most difficult situation.