Putin foe arrested in Spain on Russian warrant
A BRITISH financier and Putin critic was detained in Spain yesterday after police were said to have acted on a Russian arrest warrant.
Anti-corruption campaigner Bill Browder said he was in Madrid to give evidence to Spanish anti-Russian mafia prosecutor Jose Grinda.
Mr Browder, 54, later tweeted: ‘Urgent. Just was arrested by Spanish police in Madrid on a Russian Interpol arrest warrant. Going to the police station right now.’
He shared an image apparently taken in a police car. He claims it is the sixth time he has been the subject of a Russian arrest warrant ‘abusing’ Interpol.
Two hours later Mr Browder tweeted that he had been released. Officials said this was because they realised the warrant had ‘expired’.
A police spokesman said: ‘An arrest warrant has a date limit and when that expires, it must be deleted from the computer programme and in this case Interpol hadn’t deleted it. Once in the police station, they realised it wasn’t valid.’
But Mr Browder said Interpol had told police ‘not to honour the new Russian Interpol Red Notice’. The organisation issues Red Notices to name wanted people based on nations’ arrest warrants.
However, Interpol claimed Mr Browder was not wanted via its channels, saying: ‘There is not, and never has been, a Red Notice for Mr Bill Browder.’
Mr Browder disputed this, tweeting: ‘Just to be clear, my arrest this morning in Madrid was the result of a SIXTH Russian arrest warrant using Interpol channels. It was NOT an expired warrant, but a live one. Interpol is incapable of stopping Russian abuse of their systems.’
The US-born British citizen calls himself President Putin’s ‘ number one enemy’. He led a campaign to expose corruption and punish Russian officials he blames for the death of his lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.
Mr Magnitsky published details of fraud by Russian state officials before being charged with tax evasion and dying in detention in 200 .
In December, a Moscow court sentenced Mr Browder in his absence to nine years in a penal colony after con-Alleged victing him of deliberate bankruptcy.