“Torture” and “barbaric acts” are the charges for which the French National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office opened a preliminary investigation into the president of Interpol, Emirati General Ahmed Nasser Al-Raisi. The complaint was filed by the NGO Gulf Center for Human Rights (GCHR) last January and points to crimes committed by Al-Raisi when he was an official of the United Arab Emirates Ministry of the Interior.
The investigation could be opened in France since Interpol has its headquarters in French lands, while the anti-terrorist prosecutor’s office took charge of the investigation for having jurisdiction over crimes against humanity. According to the GHCR complaint, Al-Raisi -during his management in the United Arab Emirates- was one of those responsible for the torture inflicted on the Emirati opponent Ahmed Mansoor.
Al-Raisi’s election as president of Interpol took place at the end of last November and already then the European press cited several similar denunciations against the general. In addition, leaders and humanitarian organizations echoed his designation. For example, the station France 24 He noted then that Al-Raisi had criminal complaints filed in France, Norway, Sweden and Turkey, and two civil suits in the United Kingdom.
“We are convinced that the election of General Al-Raisi would affect Interpol’s mission and reputation,” three MEPs, including the president of the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights, Marie Arena, wrote to the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
Interpol’s statutes they grant the president an honorary role, while the real head of the international criminal police organization is the secretary general, Jürgen Stock, who was re-elected in 2019 for a second five-year term. One of the reasons that explains why Al-Raisi was elected is that The United Arab Emirates is the second largest contributor to Interpol.
The complaint against Al-Raisi and the shadow of the United Arab Emirates
The Gulf Center for Human Rights accused the Emirati general of “acts of torture and barbarism” against opponent Ahmed Mansoor, detained since 2017 in a four-square-meter cell “without a mattress or protection against the cold,” or “access to a doctor, to hygiene, to water or to sanitary facilities”.
Meanwhile, in October 2020, 19 civil society organizations, including Human Rights Watch (HRW), were already concerned about the possible election of the Emirati general, whom they considered “a member of a security apparatus that systematically targets the peaceful opposition.
Electing General Al Raisi will send “a signal to other authoritarian regimes” that using Interpol to persecute opponents abroad “is not a problem,” Edward Lemon, of Texas A&M University and a specialist in authoritarian regimes, explained before the election. , as published by the AFP agency.
A British report in March concluded that the Emirates had used the international search system to pressure opponents. Lemon said the UAE donated more than $56 million to Interpol in 2017, a sum almost equal to the statutory contributions of the organization’s 195 member countries, which was more than $67 million in 2020.