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Red Notice Law Journal

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Michelle Estlund
Russell Kott

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Clients frequently ask how they can have an INTERPOL Red Notice if they are not listed on the Wanted page of INTERPOL’s website. The answer is that the vast majority of Red Notices are unpublished. INTERPOL’s currently available data, here, tells us that “[t]here are currently approximately 58,000 valid Red Notices, of which some 7,000 are public.” With less than ten percent of Red Notices being published, this means that approximately 51,000 people are walking…
INTERPOL’s CCF (the Commission for the Control of INTERPOL’s Files) has made its most recent Annual Report available online, here.  In the 2017 Annual Report, which was officially published at the 2018 General Assembly meeting, the CCF covered a variety of topics, from recent statutory changes to the duties of the two chambers. Among the most interesting topics for an INTERPOL practitioner is the CCF’s treatment of some member countries who have attempted to…
One of the primary concerns of people who are Red Notice subjects is what will happen to them if they are detained at a border. A reader recently posed  this variation of that frequent question: What happens if you do not have a red notice at this moment, but let’s assume you board a flight to another country, and by the time you arrive a red notice has been issued for a crime you are charged…
As we await the publication of the CCF’s annual report from last year, it is worth reviewing the speech given by the Commission’s Chairman,  Vitalie Pirlog, at INTERPOL’s 2017 annual meeting as a means of providing continuity in the analysis of the upcoming report. Mr. Pirlog focused at that time on the changes brought about by the passage of the Statute of the Commission for the Control of INTERPOL’s Files, including new time limits for…
One of the most personal aspects of an INTERPOL case concerns a Red Notice subject’s decison about attorney representation. On that topic, a reader sent in the following question: Can a termination of legal representation of a lawyer after the submission of the application form to the CCF ( deletion request) and before the first review by the Commission of the file automatically lead to the dismissal of the Application on a procedural basis? This…
In a recent documentary, “Interpol- who controls the world police?” the German public broadcast service, DW, explores issues affecting INTERPOL’s functioning, independence, and funding.  The documentary addresses a variety of questions that have arisen over the last decade or so as INTERPOL has wrestled with the challenge of assisting its member countries with the enforcement of laws while also attempting to maintain neutrality with respect to its treatment of its member countries.…
One of the most frequent questions people have about INTERPOL Red Notices is how a Red Notice can be issued in a case where the prosecution was politically motivated. The question is a valid one, particularly given INTERPOL’s prohibition of involvement in political cases. INTERPOL specifies in one of its fact sheets, here, that:   The General Secretariat can only publish a notice that adheres to all the proper legal conditions. For example, a notice…
We left off in the last post with a discussion about why a Request Chamber comprised entirely of lawyers makes a difference in the nature and quality of decisions being issued by the CCF. In March of 2017, INTERPOL adopted a new Statute of the Commission for the Control of INTERPOL’s Files. As with many new regulations, the effect of this one took some time to become realized. That effect is now apparent, and is…
I recently received a decision from the CCF (Commission for the Control of INTERPOL’s Files), and I absolutely loved it. It was by far the best decision I have ever received from the CCF- and not just because we succeeded in our request to remove a client’s Red Notice, although of course that was the best part. The decision was outstanding for another reason: it provided a thorough and detailed analysis of the Commission’s…
It’s happened again. Russian authorities’s misuse of INTERPOL’s databases has resulted in further persecution of William Browder. As reported here, Russian authorities have sought for many years to extradite Browder on clearly politically motivated charges. While INTERPOL has correctly refused to allow Russian requests for Red Notices to stay in effect for Browder, Russia has managed to circumvent the Red Notice requirements by issuing a diffusion- comparable to a “BOLO,” or Be on…