The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

SOHR: The Assad regime returns to the “Interpol” .. Flee!

The Syrian regime remained a member of Interpol, but was subjected to a number of “corrective measures” after the outbreak of the revolution that demanded political reforms in 2011. It was previously suspended from accessing Interpol’s databases and communicating with other member states regarding international requests for arrests.

Legal experts and activists fear that lifting the measures will subject some of the 6 million people who have fled the civil war to detention and extradition, as well as complicate asylum claims and international legal cases against regime officials, Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported.

While this move was reported for the first time in the official Syrian media, last week, it was confirmed by Interpol in exclusive comments to the newspaper, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.

Toby Cadman, a British lawyer working on war crimes trials related to Syria, commented: “I am deeply disappointed and deeply concerned that such a decision was made. Interpol’s systems are opaque, there is no real oversight or accountability, and are routinely abused by countries like Syria that It does not respect human rights.”

INTERPOL’s 194 member states can request the organization to issue “red notices” to wanted persons, which act as a request to other member states to locate and arrest individuals who may then be subject to further measures such as extradition. Members can also issue less formal “bulletins”, which are direct requests to specific countries for assistance.

While Interpol’s founding charter states that it must be politically neutral, and the Lyon-based body says all red notices are subject to compliance reviews, authoritarian states regularly use the system to go after political opponents.

Cadman continued: “It is very easy to issue a red notice. You do not need to provide that much information, and Interpol is underfunded and understaffed so it does not review everything correctly. On the other hand, the removal of the red notice, even in European countries such as The UK or the Netherlands, it can be slow and difficult.”

Cadman added, “In the past, I worked with targeted people who spent months in detention, or in one case an entire year under house arrest, before we were able to raise the notice,” noting that the Syrian regime did not stop for a decade in pursuing its dissidents at home and abroad throughout In the past ten years, tens of thousands of people have disappeared into a prison system notorious for torture and mass executions, and army deserters and opposition figures who are now living outside the country are being pursued by the regime’s intelligence services.

For his part, Tariq Hawan, a lawyer who works at the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression, a prominent Syrian human rights organization, said: “The idea of ​​normalizing the regime is being circulated, even after all the crimes that Assad committed against his people.” While the war is far from over, fighting has been largely confined to the northwest, and many of Syria’s neighbors have begun mending ties with the regime.

The Syrian regime remained a member of Interpol, but was subjected to a number of “corrective measures” after the outbreak of the revolution that demanded political reforms in 2011. It was previously suspended from accessing Interpol’s databases and communicating with other member states regarding international requests for arrests.Legal experts and activists fear that lifting the measures will subject some of the 6 million people who have fled the civil war to detention and extradition, as well as complicate asylum claims and international legal cases against regime officials, Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported.

While this move was reported for the first time in the official Syrian media, last week, it was confirmed by Interpol in exclusive comments to the newspaper, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.

Toby Cadman, a British lawyer working on war crimes trials related to Syria, commented: “I am deeply disappointed and deeply concerned that such a decision was made. Interpol’s systems are opaque, there is no real oversight or accountability, and are routinely abused by countries like Syria that It does not respect human rights.”

INTERPOL’s 194 member states can request the organization to issue “red notices” to wanted persons, which act as a request to other member states to locate and arrest individuals who may then be subject to further measures such as extradition. Members can also issue less formal “bulletins”, which are direct requests to specific countries for assistance.

While Interpol’s founding charter states that it must be politically neutral, and the Lyon-based body says all red notices are subject to compliance reviews, authoritarian states regularly use the system to go after political opponents.

Cadman continued: “It is very easy to issue a red notice. You do not need to provide that much information, and Interpol is underfunded and understaffed so it does not review everything correctly. On the other hand, the removal of the red notice, even in European countries such as The UK or the Netherlands, it can be slow and difficult.”

Cadman added, “In the past, I worked with targeted people who spent months in detention, or in one case an entire year under house arrest, before we were able to raise the notice,” noting that the Syrian regime did not stop for a decade in pursuing its dissidents at home and abroad throughout In the past ten years, tens of thousands of people have disappeared into a prison system notorious for torture and mass executions, and army deserters and opposition figures who are now living outside the country are being pursued by the regime’s intelligence services.

For his part, Tariq Hawan, a lawyer who works at the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression, a prominent Syrian human rights organization, said: “The idea of ​​normalizing the regime is being circulated, even after all the crimes that Assad committed against his people.” While the war is far from over, fighting has been largely confined to the northwest, and many of Syria’s neighbors have begun mending ties with the regime.

But Interpol remains the first major international body to take such a decision. In the comments sent by e-mail, the international organization said that “the recommendation to lift the corrective measures was made by the Executive Committee after careful monitoring of the messages received from the National Central Office in Damascus.”

It is noteworthy that member states retain full control over the data they provide to “Interpol” and decide which NCBs can view their information, and this means that the central office in Damascus can only access information in INTERPOL databases that have not been restricted by member states. other.

The Director of the Criminal Security Department of the Ministry of Interior of the Syrian regime, Hussein Juma’a, had announced earlier that a delegation from the General Secretariat of Interpol would visit Damascus next November, headed by the head of the Counter-Terrorism Office in the General Secretariat, and it includes a number of trainers. . During the visit, there will be a workshop on the topic of modern applications of Interpol, according to the semi-official newspaper “Al-Watan”.

On the other hand, the director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, made it clear in statements to US media that the return of the Syrian regime to Interpol will not affect the situation of the Syrian opposition. He said, “It is not easy to arrest these people. Indeed, the Damascus regime failed until the Syrian revolution in 2011 arrested any of them, because Interpol needs documents and compelling evidence in order for anyone to leave.”

Abdel Rahman ruled out that the Syrian regime would be able to reach its opponents through the “Interpol” in the European Union, but “we fear for the fate of the opponents and the Syrians residing in some Arab countries, as the governments of those countries might hand them over under pretexts and justifications that they are being prosecuted on criminal charges.”

 

 

Source: Middle East.in-24.