China ‘using Interpol’ to hunt for dissidents

Exiles claim they risk being arrested and handed over to regime if crime agency agrees to issue Red Notices

CHINA is making use of Interpol to track down Hong Kong dissidents and other political opponents in Britain, it has been claimed.

UK-based exiles and activists are bracing themselves for the issuing of a expected flood of Red Notices by the international policing organisation.

Such notices inform countries that are members of Interpol that the individual is wanted, based on a judicial decision, so the dissidents fear they may be arrested and handed over to the Chinese regime if they travel abroad.

Interpol is not supposed to be used for political ends but in recent years it has been criticised for granting requests by dictatorial regimes.

Fears over the agency’s alleged disregard of human rights were heightened in November after a Middle East police official accused of overseeing torture became its president.

Officials in Hong Kong are talking openly about using Interpol to bring dissidents back to the territory after a dramatic expansion in the variety of crimes being prosecuted under the draconian National Security Law introduced in 2020.

The Hong Kong Police Force has started aggressively targeting opponents living abroad and has warned that it will also pursue foreign nationals it accuses of assisting protesters.

Sixteen prominent Hong Kong human rights campaigners, six of whom live in the UK, have written to the agency demanding to know whether the Chinese government or Hong Kong police have sought to use Interpol against them and whether any red notices have been issued. They say that without reassurances from Interpol, they are effectively prisoners in the UK.

“There is a real fear that Hong Kong, or China, might have used Interpol tools against us, and if not, and perhaps the greater fear for most of us signing this letter, is Hong Kong and China’s intent on doing so (sic), as they freely admit in public,” the letter states.

It is signed by Yau Man-Chun, a former Hong Kong legislator who fled after the security law was introduced, and Simon Cheng, a former British Consulate employee who claims he was tortured by the Chinese authorities.

Luke de Pulford, who helps coordinate the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, is also signatory. He last year was warned by the Foreign Office that he was at risk of extradition to Hong Kong.

They point out that in 2017 Interpol issued a red notice against Idris Hasan, a Uyghur activist who faces deportation to China from Morocco.

Mr Cheng called on the UK Government to lobby Interpol to cancel any red notices against human rights exiles and for the organisation to disclose if it had issued any. “Interpol is like a black box and we don’t know what’s in it,” he said.

“We are very worried that they will just follow China’s instructions. We don’t know which countries it is safe to fly to.” Ten countries have extradition treaties with China, of which two are EU member states, Portugal and the Czech Republic – whose membership of the bloc widens China’s ability to hunt down its enemies.

A Home Office spokesman said: “Any misuse of Interpol is taken incredibly seriously. We continue to support Interpol’s efforts to protect individuals’ rights and uphold its constitution, which forbids the organisation to undertake any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character. Interpol plays a vital role every day to protect the public.”