INTERPOL Secretary General Valdecy Urquiza declined to elaborate on allegations that Turkey uses the organization’s alerts to pursue political opponents, when asked by a Turkish journalist at the opening of the 27th INTERPOL African Regional Conference on Wednesday, Turkish Minute reported.
Urquiza said INTERPOL has “complete and solid” safeguards to prevent misuse of its databases and tools and said the topic was not on the meeting agenda.
Journalist Türkmen Terzi said Turkish officials claim to have submitted thousands of names to INTERPOL and that the organization’s systems were being used to target political opponents, seeking the secretary general’s comment on the matter. Urquiza responded that INTERPOL’s safeguards exist to keep tools aligned with its mission and referred to mechanisms that screen requests, without taking further questions on the claim.
INTERPOL’s rules bar political cases. Article 3 of the organization’s constitution forbids any activity of a political, military, religious or racial character. Red Notices and diffusions are subject to compliance checks by INTERPOL’s Notices and Diffusions Task Force, and individuals can challenge data before the Commission for the Control of Interpol’s Files.
The question came as South Africa hosts the three-day regional meeting in Cape Town, which focuses on cooperation against organized crime. South African authorities reported that more than 200 police leaders are attending.
Turkey’s government has said it has asked INTERPOL to circulate thousands of alerts related to members of Gülen movement, inspired by the late Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, whom Ankara blames for a failed coup in 2016. Gülen and the movement denied any involvement in the coup.
Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç said in July that Turkey had requested 3,579 Red Notices and filed 2,364 extradition requests since 2016, with few resulting in formal extraditions. INTERPOL does not publicly confirm or deny individual notice requests.
Rights groups and lawmakers in Europe and the United Kingdom have accused several governments, including Turkey, of abusing the INTERPOL notice system to target exiles and critics. A report by the UK Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights cited evidence that China, Russia and Turkey are among the most frequent abusers of the notice system.
A Red Notice asks police worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person for extradition. It is not an international arrest warrant, and member states decide whether to act on it under their laws. INTERPOL says it blocks requests that violate Article 3.
The African Regional Conference runs August 27 to 29 at the Century City Conference Centre in Cape Town. South African officials say the agenda includes drug trafficking, cybercrime and other cross-border threats.
