Interpol
International police organization
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2023 | Over 60 Interpol member states, including diplomatic allies like Eswatini, Palau, Paraguay, Belize, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the Marshall Islands, and Saint Kitts and Nevis, voiced support for Taiwan's bid to re-join the organization. |
October 30 2023 | Belarusian filmmaker Andrey Gnyot was arrested in Belgrade after being placed on an Interpol warrant list, accused of tax evasion by Belarusian authorities. He was later transferred to house arrest in June 2024 after spending seven months in detention. |
May 10 2023 | Operation Identify Me was launched. |
2021 | Reports emerged alleging that Ahmed Naser Al-Raisi, a senior UAE government official and new Interpol President, had previously been involved in torturing individuals in the UAE. |
2021 | Multiple countries (Turkey, China, UAE, Iran, Russia, Venezuela) were accused of abusing Interpol to target political opponents, with specific allegations against each nation. |
November 2021 | A Turkish lawyer, Gulden Sonmez, filed a criminal complaint against Al-Raisi's nomination in Turkey, accusing the Emirates of attempting to cover up human rights violations and launder its reputation. |
November 25 2021 | Ahmed Naser Al-Raisi was elected as president of Interpol, despite significant international controversy surrounding his human rights record. |
October 2021 | Lawyers submitted a complaint to the French Prosecutor in Paris against Al-Raisi, alleging unlawful detention and torture of Ali Issa Ahmad and Matthew Hedges under the principle of universal jurisdiction. |
June 2021 | 35 French Parliamentarians urged President Emmanuel Macron to oppose Ahmed Nasser Al-Raisi's candidacy for Interpol presidency, citing accusations of torture against political opponents. |
2019 | Interpol's operating income reached €142 million, with 41% from statutory contributions, 35% from voluntary cash contributions, and 24% from in-kind contributions. |
November 21 2018 | Kim Jong Yang was elected by Interpol's General Assembly to complete the remainder of the previous president's term, in a controversial election. The election involved competing against Alexander Prokopchuk of Russia, with American senators and human rights organizations expressing concerns about Prokopchuk's potential misuse of Interpol notices to target political critics. |
October 7 2018 | Interpol officially announced Meng Hongwei's resignation from his presidential position, with Kim Jong Yang of South Korea temporarily assuming the Presidency as Senior Vice-president (Asia). |
September 2018 | Meng Hongwei was reported missing during a trip to China after being 'taken away' for questioning by discipline authorities. |
March 17 2018 | Czech authorities officially dismissed Turkey's extradition request against Salih Muslim as lacking merit. |
February 25 2018 | Syrian-Kurd Salih Muslim was briefly detained in Prague, Czech Republic, at Turkey's request and released two days later, causing diplomatic tensions. |
September 2017 | Stockholm Center for Freedom issued a report highlighting Turkey's abuse of Interpol mechanisms to target critics and opponents, using arrest warrants and travel document revocations as persecution tools. |
September 2017 | In September, Interpol voted to accept Palestine and the Solomon Islands as new member states, expanding its international membership. |
2016 | Taiwan criticized Interpol for rejecting its application to join the General Assembly as an observer. The United States supported Taiwan's participation and passed Congressional legislation directing the Secretary of State to develop a strategy for obtaining observer status for Taiwan. |
November 2016 | Meng Hongwei was elected president of Interpol during the 85th Interpol General Assembly, with a term intended to run until 2020. |
2015 | Following the FIFA scandal, Interpol severed ties with all previously criticized private-sector bodies and implemented a new, more transparent financing framework. |
2015 | Interpol's president successfully secured the departure of HSBC CEO from the Interpol Foundation board following Swiss Leaks allegations. |
July 16 2015 | The international arrest warrant against Viktor Yanukovych was suspended pending further review, following an intervention by the British law firm Joseph Hage Aaronson. |
July 1 2015 | Interpol organized a Working Group on the Processing of Information session to verify information processing mechanisms and hear civil society recommendations for reforming the international investigation system. |
May 2015 | PACE Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights organized a hearing in Yerevan to discuss Interpol abuse, with representatives from NGOs and Interpol participating. |
April 2015 | Interpol was criticized for mistakenly apprehending Alondra Díaz-Nuñez in Guanajuato City, Mexico, who was wrongly identified as a missing American teenager, leading to media criticism of Interpol's involvement with Mexican and U.S. authorities. |
April 2015 | Interpol officially opened the Global Complex for Innovation (IGCI) in Singapore, a research and development facility for digital crimes investigations. |
January 12 2015 | Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was placed on Interpol's wanted list as a suspect for the mass killing of protesters during Euromaidan. |
2014 | OSCE Parliamentary Assembly adopted a decision to thoroughly analyze and compile a special report on the abuse of Interpol. |
September 2014 | Interpol opened a third Command and Coordination Centre in Singapore. |
July 25 2014 | Dmytro Yarosh, a Ukrainian nationalist paramilitary leader, was placed on Interpol's international wanted list at the request of Russian authorities, becoming the only person internationally wanted after the start of the 2014 Russian military intervention in Ukraine. |
January 31 2014 | Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe passed a resolution criticizing Interpol's file control commission mechanisms, particularly highlighting non-adversarial procedures and potentially unjust decisions. |
2013 | Interpol faced criticism for its multimillion-dollar deals with private sector organizations including FIFA, Philip Morris, and pharmaceutical companies, primarily due to concerns about lack of transparency and potential conflicts of interest. |
2013 | OSCE Parliamentary Assembly further addressed potential Interpol arrest mechanism abuses in a declaration adopted in Istanbul. |
2013 | Interpol Foundation for a Safer World was created to enhance collaboration between Interpol and the private sector. |
2013 | Interpol deployed Incident Response Teams (IRTs) eight times during this year to assist with international law enforcement efforts. |
2012 | OSCE Parliamentary Assembly continued criticism of politically motivated Interpol arrests in a declaration adopted in Monaco. |
November 8 2012 | Mireille Ballestrazzi was elected as the first female president of Interpol during the 81st General Assembly, becoming the Deputy Central Director of the French Judicial Police to lead the international law enforcement organization. |
September 2011 | Interpol added a second Command and Coordination Centre in Buenos Aires. |
2010 | OSCE Parliamentary Assembly first criticized the potential political misuse of Interpol arrest mechanisms in a declaration adopted in Oslo. |
November 2010 | Office of the Auditor General of Norway replaced the French Court of Audit as Interpol's external auditors, with a three-year term and option for extension. |
July 2010 | Selebi was found guilty of corruption by the South African High Court in Johannesburg for accepting bribes worth €156,000 from a drug trafficker. |
This contents of the box above is based on material from the Wikipedia article Interpol, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.