Interpol’s f laws exposed in fight over presidency
South Korean candidate wins over Russian rival
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The U.S. won, Russia lost and Interpol narrowly escaped disaster — that’s the upshot of an unusually high-drama vote for the international police agency’s president, dominated by fears that Russia wants to turn Interpol into a tool to hunt down its enemies.
While rights groups and Kremlin critics celebrated the surprise victory of South Korean candidate Kim Jong Yang over his Russian rival, the vote exposed flaws within Interpol. Now, the pressure is on Kim and Interpol’s day-to-day boss, Secretary-General Juergen Stock, to fix them.
The White House came out publicly against the candidacy of Kim’s Russian rival, Alexander Prokopchuk. After the election, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called Kim “the right man to lead one of the world’s most critical law enforcement bodies in its mission to preserve the rule of law and make the world a safer place.”
For Interpol, the vote staved off possible collapse, after rumblings from some member countries about quitting the agency.
The vote shows that members “thought really hard about whether they want to back away from this institution or make sure it’s run properly and operates fairly,”said Jago Russell, chief of Fair Trials International, which has championed and monitored Interpol’s reform efforts.
Authoritarian governments have long sought to leverage Interpol’s reach — and notably its system of “red notices” that flag suspects for arrest wherever they go — for political ends. While it has tried to clean up this system, it remains vulnerable to pressure from powerful member states: Its last president vanished in China in a possible political purge, while Interpol quietly looked on.
Stock acknowledged that “systems can be improved,” but stressed that Interpol’s information-sharing systems have led to the arrest of 10,000 serious criminals so far this year. “It is fundamental to Interpol’s existence that we are neutral and that we are independent,” he insisted.
That was a central argument for the U.S., and governments in Europe and elsewhere who lobbied against Russian security service veteran Prokopchuk. The Western powers warned that a Russian victory would have led to further abuses of Interpol by the Kremlin, seeking to go after political opponents and fugitive dissidents.
Russia accused its critics of overly politicizing the vote and campaigning to discredit Prokopchuk, calling him a respected professional. Russian officials were subdued in their response to the vote, and it got only modest attention in the state-dominated media.
South Korea’s government called Kim’s election a “national triumph” that could elevate the country’s international standing.