Removing Interpol Red Notices: Best Practices

✅ Quick Answer: When targeted by an INTERPOL Red Notice, securing proper legal assistance is crucial. Qualified Interpol Lawyers possess the expertise to navigate INTERPOL’s complex regulations. They can challenge the validity of the notice based on its grounds or procedural errors. Through legal avenues, these professionals can request to freeze the notice, preventing immediate actions based on it. Ultimately, with a strong case, they can facilitate the complete deletion of the notice from INTERPOL’s records, safeguarding the individual’s rights and freedom.

Request for Information: Interpol Red Notices

In order to locate and detain a wanted person with the intention of extraditing her to the requesting country, INTERPOL allows its member countries to request Red Notice publication. Once published, the Red Notice becomes valid and is visible to all INTERPOL member countries. We remind you that there are currently 195 INTERPOL member countries, which means that Red Notices trigger the persons concerned worldwide.

Unfortunately, the threshold for a Red Notice publication is very low, meaning that once a relevant member country complies with the minimum criteria – Red Notice is immediately circulated. Such criteria are: presenting a valid judicial arrest warrant and proving sufficient judicial data regarding a person concerned. INTERPOL is not a court and does not analyze the issues of guilt or innocence, neither does it fulfill any deep analysis of the evidential basis (not until the lawyers are involved at least).

Red Notice may be published for any crime punishable by a maximum deprivation of liberty of at least two years or a more serious penalty. But often this threshold is decreased by INTERPOL to crimes punishable by a maximum deprivation of liberty of at least one year. You should bear in mind that once a Red Notice is published it is quite difficult to get it removed, as you will be fighting a bureaucratic and poorly regulated system. That is why we recommend acting in advance in order to prevent the mere possibility of a Red Notice publication once you have good reasons to believe the relevant risks exist. Check out our successful preventive request strategies in this section of the website.

🚨 PREVENTING INTERPOL RED NOTICE: How to Safeguard Your Rights

Once the relevant criteria are met, INTERPOL’s General Secretariat issues a Red Notice and circulates it among all 195 member countries. The person concerned is not informed that a Red Notice is issued against her. That is why people are often careless and unguarded against the threats stemming from a Red Notice unless they hire a qualified lawyer and get a preventive strategy in place. INTERPOL may inform a person concerned if her data is indeed being processed by INTERPOL upon the lawyer’s request. Our Interpol Lawyers can draft and submit a request asking for access to Interpol’s files.

Interpol’s Red Notices are triggered differently by various countries according to their national legislations. But as a general rule – Interpol’s Red Notice triggers immediate detention, arrest, and further extradition of the person concerned.

Given that INTERPOL does not fulfill a thorough verification of the initial requests for a Red Notice publication, the INTERPOL system is often being abused by member countries who are willing to extend their jurisdiction internationally by means of INTERPOL. Consequently, getting on INTERPOL’s wanted list significantly restricts your rights and poses serious threats.

Given that by far not all Interpol Red Notices are made public, it might be difficult to tell if you are indeed targeted by INTERPOL and when exactly a relevant notice might affect you. Unknowingly being added to Interpol’s Red Notice list can put a person in an uncomfortable situation, such as being detained in the airport with further arrest in court. Contact our Extradition Attorneys directly if you believe you may be subject to INTERPOL’s notice. Our Interpol Lawyers will elaborate on the best applicable legal strategy in your case and submit a relevant request to INTERPOL on your behalf, which will minimize the risk of your arrest and launch a data deletion procedure.

Once our request is found admissible by the Commission for the Control of Interpol’s Files (CCF), INTERPOL may apply interim measures, in other words – freeze the Red Notice regarding you pending the consideration of the request on the merits. It means that INTERPOL member countries will not see the Red Notice in their Information Systems and you will be able to travel freely worldwide. We will also know whether there is a record regarding you in the Interpol Information Systems (IIS). In other words – whether your data is being processed by INTERPOL, and if yes – on what basis, and on the request of which country. If your data is being processed by INTERPOL our Interpol Lawyers will elaborate a legal strategy to get it removed.

Our Interpol and Extradition Lawyers have an impressive track record of successful cases resulting in the complete removal of their Clients’ data from INTERPOL’s files. We are cognizant of a huge responsibility due to handling our Clients’ cases in INTERPOL, as the stakes are very high. That is why our Interpol and Extradition Lawyers are the best in their league, who you can completely rely on. Our Lawyers are permanently enhancing their professional level and have extensive previous experience working in law enforcement agencies worldwide, which allows them to know in detail how “the system” operates.

Red Notice Removal: steps, key players, and Considerations

Interpol Red Notice Removal

It is not appropriate to issue Interpol Red Notices for primarily political, ethnic, or religious motives. It is crucial to contest the Red Notice if there are sufficient grounds to believe that it was issued for such reasons. Unfortunately, INTERPOL member countries are often abusing the INTERPOL system and publishing Red Notices in the scope of politically motivated persecutions aiming to achieve reprisal rather than justice. That is why our highly qualified Lawyers can help you to figure out if relevant prosecution can amount to a politically motivated one, and if so – to get your data deleted from Interpol’s files.

Additionally, Interpol is bound by its strict regulations set out in Interpol’s Constitution and Interpol’s Rules on the Processing of Data (RPD) regarding the criteria for Red Notices publication. Interpol proclaims itself to be a neutral and democratic organization that impedes INTERPOL to interfere in a dispute between the person concerned and a requesting country. However, INTERPOL does subject the initial requests for a Red Notice publication to a certain level of scrutiny, which, frankly speaking, desires to be better. Among others, INTERPOL demands that the charges against the persons concerned be set out in a clear and succinct manner. Our experienced Lawyers can find inconsistencies in the charges stemming from a national level that we can use to get the Red Notice deleted.

The requesting country must justify the necessity of a Red Notice publication and prove that such notice or a diffusion constitutes an interest for international police cooperation. If the member state fails to do so, our Interpol Lawyers can get your data deleted from Interpol’s files based on Articles 10, 35, 82, 83, and 99 of the RPD.

The requesting country must also provide sufficient identifiers of the person concerned, as well as judicial information, such as a summary of facts of the case; the charge (s); the law (s) applicable and covering the offense (s); the maximum penalty possible, the sentence imposed, or sentence remaining to be served; and a reference to a valid arrest warrant or judicial decision having the same effect.
INTERPOL has to demonstrate that the request for a Red Notice publication is appropriate and meets the RPD criteria, even though INTERPOL does not take any final decision on the merits of the case, neither does it decide whether the data of the person concerned can be processed by INTERPOL for an indefinite period of time.

Our Interpol Lawyers have an in-depth understanding of various grounds and arguments that can be used for a Red Notice removal once the data processing does meet the INTERPOL standards. We will be informed immediately by the CCF of the INTERPOL once the data processing regarding our Clients fails to correspond to the INTERPOL’s relevant rules.

As your Interpol Lawyers, we will thoroughly review the information and documents provided by the NCB of the requesting country and work out the best legal strategy, based on irregularities in the prosecution and violations of data processing, in order to get your data deleted from INTERPOL’s files.  Our approach is based on a case-by-case analysis, that ensures an extremely high success rate of our cases when challenging the INTERPOL’s Red Notice or other circular alerts. Our Interpol Lawyers have a unique possibility to fulfill the case study on a profound level, involving our powerful resources worldwide, combining efforts with top-end national law firms and sole practitioners. Among our Partners are former prominent prosecutors, former Interpol officers, former judges both of national courts, as well as of the European Court of Human Rights, and the International Court of Justice, and outstanding Law Professors from distinguished universities, such as Harvard, Stanford, Cambridge, and Oxford.

The INTERPOL Red Notice is the most well-known type of Interpol notice because it serves as a legal basis to fulfill the arrest and subsequently extradite a targeted person. But did you know that Interpol Red Notice is an international alert for a wanted person, but it is not an arrest warrant? It is so because when exercising the actual arrest on the basis of a Red Notice, a relevant country that has detained a targeted individual is applying its own legislation. It means that various countries react to a Red Notice differently. Though, as a general rule, a Red Notice does lead to an arrest, particularly when the person concerned does not have a qualified lawyer to protect her interests. Meantime, a Red Notice is not a verdict and it should not restrict your rights when you have the right lawyer. Moreover, a Red Notice can be challenged, which allows us to freeze it with a subsequent data deletion from Interpol’s files regarding our Clients.

Our Interpol Lawyers also successfully use the arguments related to human rights violations when challenging Red Notices.

This information will give you an understanding of the numbers related to Interpol’s Red Notices circulation.

Interpol Notices and How to remove Red Notice 

Interpol shares its alerts and circulates the information globally using basically nine types of notices. Seven of these notices are color-coded, and each color has specific conditions and purposes for its publication. Here here are the nine types of notices used by Interpol today:

1. Red Notice.
2. Blue Notice.
3. Green Notice.
4. Yellow Notice.
5. Purple Notice.
6. Black Notice.
7. Orange Notice.
8. Interpol-United Nations Security Council special notice.
9. Stolen work of art notices.

Once published, all 195 INTERPOL member states can have access to and see these notices in the Interpol Information System. Besides the INTERPOL member countries, bodies like the United Nations, International Criminal Court, International Criminal Tribunals, FATF, as well as various financial intelligence units (FIU), can see these notices and use them to seek arrests of fugitives wanted for committing crimes within their jurisdictions, or to conduct relevant investigations targeting the persons concerned.

Ways to Challenge an Interpol’s Red Notice

It is possible to challenge Interpol’s Red Notice so that it will be deleted from Interpol’s files. How to remove Interpol Red Notice? INTERPOL created a special independent organ – the CCF – aimed to assess the validity and arguments raised in deletion requests, which are submitted by lawyers asking for data deletion regarding their Clients. The proceedings in the CCF are usually quite complex and lasting and are fulfilled according to the Interpol’s Rules on the Processing of Data (RPD).

One of the legal ways to have a Red Notice removed is by challenging its validity. And since INTERPOL’s activity is governed by its Constitution and the Rules on the Processing of Data, one needs to have an in-depth understanding of these governing provisions to be able to challenge a Red Notice. Our Interpol Lawyers are highly experiences, qualified and sophisticated, that allows them to successfully challenge INTERPOL’s notices on a regular basis, achieving tailored and robust solutions for our Clients.

Here are four basic and general grounds one can use to challenge a Red Notice:

• Using the provisions of Article 83 (1) of the RPD  

According to Article 36 of the Interpol’s Constitution, the CCF is an independent body which shall ensure that the processing of personal information by the Organization is in compliance with the regulations the Organization establishes in this matter.  As it is stipulated by Article 83 (1) of the RPD:

(a) Red notices may be published only if the following cumulative criteria are met:

• The offence concerned is a serious ordinary-law crime.

Red notices may not be published for the following categories of offences:

– offences that in various countries raise controversial issues relating to behavioral or cultural norms;

– offences relating to family/private matters;

– offences originating from a violation of laws or regulations of an administrative nature or deriving from private disputes, unless the criminal activity is aimed at facilitating a serious crime or is suspected of being connected to organized crime.

• Using the provisions of Article 83 (2) (b) of the RPD 

According to Article 83 (2) (b) of the RPD, a Red Notice can only be published when sufficient judicial data is provided. This includes a succinct and clear description of criminal activities, the maximum penalty possible, the law covering the offense, and the reference to a valid national arrest red notice warrant following a judicial decision. If the above threshold is not met, we can build a strong case and have a Red Notice removed from INTERPOL’s files.

• Using Article 2 (1) of the Interpol Constitution 

This approach implies reviewing whether the Interpol Red Notice publication was in conformity with the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). If the activities of a specific Interpol member country do not comply with the principles of the UDHR, as well as with the other relevant standards of human rights, we can request a Red Notice removal on your behalf. For instance, we can allege and duly substantiate that you will not get a fair trial under Article 10 of the UDHR if extradited to the requesting country.

• Using Article 3 of the Interpol Constitution 

Article 3 of the Interpol Constitution states that it is forbidden for Interpol to get involved in political, religious, military, or racial activities. This also gives you a channel through which you can challenge Interpol Red Notices. er than a justice. That is why our highly qualified Lawyers can help you to figure out if relevant prosecution against you can amount to a politically motivated one, and if so – to get your data deleted from Interpol’s files.

The Process of Challenging an Interpol Red Notice 

According to Interpol, the wanted individuals can take three possible actions to challenge INTERPOL Red Notices issued against them, and ask for their data removal from the relevant Interpol databases.

1. Interpol Lawyers can contact the national law enforcement authorities of the requesting country and ask them to drop the accusations and inform the INTERPOL that they have no further intention to keep the Red Notice in the system. Usually, this action requires seeking legal advice from reputable Interpol Lawyers because every Interpol member country has its own legislation and relevant regulations. This approach also requires an in-depth legal analysis of the national criminal case files on the subject of human rights violations, procedural irregularities, as well as the inconsistency of the charges themselves.
2. Interpol Lawyers can challenge judicial arrest warrants issued by INTERPOL member countries with the next step – asking INTERPOL to delete information from the Interpol databases.
3. Interpol Lawyers can submit a deletion request on behalf of the person concerned directly to the CCF seeking the data removal from Interpol’s files. The deletion request must meet the CCF admissibility requirements, and be properly grounded and substantiated. These requirements are quite complex, and the relevant CCF regulatory framework is intricate, which is why is always better for the person concerned to seek highly qualified Interpol Lawyers from a top-end Law Firm experienced in handling cases in INTERPOL.

About CCF’s Admissibility Requirements.

Similarly, your request for data deletion must meet admissibility requirements for the CCF to consider it. This includes, among others, using the application form provided by the CCF and following all the instructions in that form. Here are some recommendations you must follow when filling in a deletion request to the Interpol:

• The request must contain your original signature.
• The request must be written in any of the four languages designated by the CCF. This includes English, Arabic, Spanish, and French.
• You must clearly state the purpose of the request. This can be a request for data deletion, data correction, or access to Interpol’s files.
• The request must be accompanied by a copy of your official identity document, including your full name, photograph, and date of birth.
• The application form must be completed as required by the CCF.
• Your request must be duly and sufficiently substantiated and you should attach any documents which are supporting your arguments.

About CCF’s ‘Admissibility Requirements’?

Similarly, your request must meet admissibility requirements for the CCF to consider it. This includes using the application form provided by the CCF and following all the instructions in that form. Here are the details you must include in the removal of the Interpol red notices request:

• The request must have your original signature.
• It must be written in any of the four languages designated by the CCF. This includes English, Arabic, Spanish, and French.
• You must clearly state the purpose of the request. This could be a request for data deletion, data correction, or access to Interpol’s files.
• The request must be accompanied by a copy of your official identity document, including your full name, photograph, and date of birth.
• The application form must be completed as required by the CCF and attached to the provided CCF Application Form.

How to Know if You Are a Target of an Interpol Red Notice  

It is usually difficult to know if you are on Interpol’s Wanted List if a Red Notice against you is not triggered yet, and once it is triggered – it may be already too late to avoid relevant negative implications. Such a dilemma requires the involvement of a professional Interpol Lawyer at the earliest possible stage of your case development – once you have any suspicions that you may be targeted by INTERPOL. Unfortunately, frequently individuals become aware that they are targeted by INTERPOL only when they get detained and arrested, as in most cases the information concerning the Red Notices remains confidential until such notices are triggered and executed.

Our qualified Interpol Lawyers can contact the CCF on your behalf and request access to Interpol’s files. This will give you a clear understanding of your data is being processed by the INTERPOL. At the same time, we strongly recommend applying a preventive strategy that might block the mere possibility of a Red Notice publication against you. This can be done with the help of a preventive request that our Interpol Lawyers can submit on your behalf to the INTERPOL.

Kendall Coffey

Senior Partner

Mr. Coffey is a former U.S. Attorney, Southern District of Florida (1993-1996); and served as Chair of, the Southern District Conference, Florida Federal Judicial Nominating Commission (April 2009 – January 2017).

Phone:

+357 25 059 684

Email:

[email protected]

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