Interpol chief sent wife image of knife before disappearing

THE wife of the missing Interpol president yesterday said her husband sent her an image of a knife before he disappeared during a trip to China.

Interpol said last night that Meng Hongwei, 64, had resigned as president of the global police agency as China confirmed he had been detained.

His wife Grace Meng said she had not heard from him since the message was sent on September 25.

Making her first public comments on his disappearance, she said she thinks the knife emoji was her husband’s way of trying to tell her he was in danger.

Speaking in Lyon, France, where Interpol is based, she said four minutes before Mr Meng (pictured) shared the image, he sent a message saying ‘wait for my call’. Mrs Meng said he had travelled back to China for work.

‘His job is very busy. We connected every day,’ she said.

She read a statement in Lyon but would not allow reporters to show her face, saying she feared for her own safety and that of her two children.

French police have placed her family under special protection after she received threats over the phone and on social media.

Last night the Communist Party’s watchdog for corruption and political disloyalty said that Mr Meng is ‘suspected of violating the law and is currently under the monitoring and investigation’ of the country’s new anti-corruption body, the National Supervision Commission.

Interpol said on Saturday it used law enforcement channels to inquire with China about Mr Meng’s status.

But yesterday it said it had ‘received the resignation of Mr Meng Hongwei as President of Interpol with immediate effect’ – announcing that South Korean national Kim Jong Yang would become its acting president.

The organisation went out of its way to say that its secretary general, not Mr Meng, was responsible for the day-today running of the agency.