South Korean named Interpol president in blow to Russia

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Interpol elected a —

South Korean as the organization’s president on Wednesday, edging out a veteran of Russia’s security services who was strongly opposed by the United States, Britain and other European nations.

Kim Jong Yang’s surprise election was seen as a victory for the White House and its European partners, who had lobbied until final hours before the vote against Alexander Prokopchuk’s bid to be named the policing organization’s next president.

The U.S. and others expressed concern that if Russia’s candidate had been elected, that would have led to further Kremlin abuses of Interpol’s red notice system to go after political opponents and fugitive dissidents.

Russia accused its critics of running a “campaign to discredit” its candidate, calling Prokopchuk a respected professional.

Groups campaigning to clean up Interpol celebrated the win, as did South Korea. South Korea’s police and Foreign Ministry issued a joint statement saying Kim’s election is a “national triumph” that could elevate the country’s international standing.

Kim’s win also means he secured at least two-thirds of votes cast at Interpol’s general assembly in Dubai on Wednesday. Interpol does not release how member states voted or how many votes Kim received. He will serve until 2020, completing the four-year mandate of his predecessor, Meng Hongwei, who was detained in China as part of a wide anti-corruption sweep there.

Kim, a police official in South Korea, served as interim president after Meng’s detention and was also senior vice president at Interpol.

Russia’s Interior Ministry said after the vote that Prokopchuk, one of three vice presidents at Interpol, will remain in that position. Spokeswoman Irina Volk told the Interfax news agency that Prokopchuk will “focus on advancing the stature of Interpol in the international police community and making its work more effective.”

Most of Interpol’s 194 member-countries attended the organization’s annual assembly this year, held in an opulent Dubai hotel along the Persian Gulf coast.

Interpol had faced a pivotal moment in its history as delegates decided whether to hand its presidency to Prokopchuk or Kim, the only two candidates for the post.

Interpol Secretary General Jurgen Stock told reporters in Dubai later on Wednesday that a president’s nationality does not affect the organization’s neutrality.

“It is fundamental to Interpol’s existence that we are neutral and that we are independent,” he said.

Critics say countries like Russia, Turkey, Egypt, Iran and China have used the system to try to round up political opponents, journalists or activists.

Interpol faced criticism two years ago when its member states approved Meng as president for a four-year term. Amnesty International has criticized “China’s longstanding practice of trying to use Interpol to arrest dissidents and refugees abroad.”

Still, member countries can issue requests to other countries using Interpol’s communication system, without going through centralized Interpol vetting for red notices. Watchdog groups are urging Interpol to reform the diffusion system too.

Bill Browder, who runs an investment fund that had once operated in Moscow, says Russia used the diffusion system against him, which led to his brief arrest in Spain earlier this year.

Browder and another Kremlin critic, oligarch-turned-dissident Mikhail Khodorkovsky, warned electing Prokopchuk — who has ties to President Vladimir Putin — would have undermined the international law enforcement agency and politicized police cooperation across borders. Prokopchuk was in charge of facilitating Interpol warrants on behalf of Russia.