Interpol Definitively Rejects Russia’s Request to Issue an International Arrest Warrant for Bill Browder

January 26, 2015

Inter­pol Defin­i­tive­ly Rejects Rus­si­a’s Request to Issue an Inter­na­tion­al Arrest War­rant for Bill Browder

 

26 Jan­u­ary 2015 — Inter­pol, the inter­na­tion­al police orga­ni­za­tion, has defin­i­tive­ly reject­ed Rus­si­a’s attempt to add Bill Brow­der, CEO of Her­mitage Cap­i­tal Man­age­ment, to its Red Notice inter­na­tion­al arrest war­rant sys­tem. This is Rus­si­a’s third unsuc­cess­ful attempt to issue an Inter­pol Red Notice for Brow­der. A Red Notice would have meant that Brow­der would be arrest­ed at any inter­na­tion­al bor­der and poten­tial­ly extra­dit­ed back to Rus­sia. Over the last eight weeks, Inter­pol’s Com­mis­sion for the Con­trol of Files has reviewed Rus­si­a’s appli­ca­tion and con­clud­ed that the Russ­ian war­rant was ille­git­i­mate because it was “pre­dom­i­nant­ly political.”

 

This attempt by the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment fol­lows a long series of acts of retal­i­a­tion against Brow­der for his role in the suc­cess­ful pas­sage of the US Mag­nit­sky Act, which impos­es visa sanc­tions and asset freezes on Russ­ian offi­cials who killed Sergei Mag­nit­sky, were involved in the $230 mil­lion theft he had uncov­ered, or per­pe­trat­ed oth­er human rights abuses.
Pre­vi­ous­ly, Inter­pol refused two sim­i­lar requests from Rus­sia for Brow­der. In the sum­mer of 2014, Inter­pol said Rus­si­a’s requests to arrest Brow­der were invalid because they vio­lat­ed Interpol’s Con­sti­tu­tion which pro­hibits the orga­ni­za­tion to be used for polit­i­cal persecution.

 

Instead of com­ply­ing with the pre­vi­ous two Interpol’s rul­ings, the Russ­ian author­i­ties began an inten­sive high-lev­el lob­by­ing cam­paign to influ­ence Inter­pol to reverse their deci­sion. In Jan­u­ary 2014, the Russ­ian Gen­er­al Prosecutor’s Office dis­patched offi­cials to Lyon, France, where Inter­pol is head­quar­tered, who per­suad­ed Inter­pol to re-open the Brow­der case. To help con­vince Inter­pol, Russ­ian Pres­i­dent Putin invit­ed Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary of Inter­pol Ron Noble to his pri­vate res­i­dence near Moscow at the end of Octo­ber 2014. Russ­ian author­i­ties also lob­bied Inter­pol mem­ber states to elect their rep­re­sen­ta­tive to Interpol’s gov­ern­ing body, the Exec­u­tive Committee.

 

To make their lat­est appli­ca­tion to Inter­pol for Brow­der, the Russ­ian author­i­ties used the posthu­mous tri­al against Brow­der’s mur­dered Russ­ian lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky. This tri­al was con­demned around the world as a gross abuse of justice.

 

This lat­est episode with Inter­pol is an impor­tant exam­ple of how Putin applies Rus­si­a’s sov­er­eign pow­er to abuse its mem­ber­ship in inter­na­tion­al orga­ni­za­tions. While the Inter­pol deci­sion was the cor­rect and right one, there are many oth­er vic­tims of the Russ­ian regime in less high-pro­file cas­es who are being unjust­ly arrest­ed in for­eign coun­tries as they flee polit­i­cal per­se­cu­tion in Rus­sia. It’s time that Russia’s fail­ing judi­cial sys­tem is tak­en into account by inter­na­tion­al orga­ni­za­tions for their con­stant abuse for polit­i­cal or cor­rupt motives,” said Bill Browder.

 

Next week, on Feb­ru­ary 3rd 2015, Bill Brow­der will be respond­ing with his own “Red Notice” on Putin’s Russia.

 

Browder’s book enti­tled, “Red Notice: A true sto­ry of High Finance, Mur­der, and One Man’s Fight for Jus­tice” (UK edi­tion: “Red Notice, How I Became Putin’s Num­ber One Ene­my”) will be launched in the US and in the UK. Browder’s “Red Notice” will show that Putin is more akin to a crime boss than a legit­i­mate world leader.

 

To learn more vis­it the Red Notice book web­site: http://billbrowder.com

 

For more infor­ma­tion, please contact:

 

Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice Campaign

 

+44 2074401777

e‑mail: info@lawandorderinrussia.org

web­site: www.lawandorderinrussia.org

Face­book: http://on.fb.me/hvIuVI

Twit­ter: @KatieFisher__

 

 

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