Advocate
Dmytro Konovalenko
Service:
Protection from international wanted lists and sending an urgent request to the Commission for the Control of Interpol Files (CCF)
The persecution of public figures and activists is a common practice that our lawyers regularly encounter. Such persecution complicates doing business, freely crossing borders and causes particular discomfort to everyone, regardless of the country in which they are located. One such story is the story related to the activities of public activist Mikhail Oreshnikov.
Case specifics: protection of interests and rights of a public activist
Our client was an activist, a public figure who lived in Russia. Given his political views and position, he was under constant control of security forces. As a result of participating in one of the organized rallies, he was detained along with other protesters. Additionally, he was accused of causing bodily harm to one of the law enforcement officers.
As soon as our client was released, he immediately left Russia and, having renounced his Russian citizenship, moved to Ukraine, having received a Ukrainian passport. After that, Mikhail decided to go on a trip to Indonesia. But on the way back (from Indonesia to Kyiv), the police at the Jakarta airport detained our client on the basis of diffusion.
It turned out that the Russian security forces had been carefully monitoring Mikhail’s social networks all this time, and therefore they managed to track his exact location using the geolocation under the photos and videos that were published. Thus, the NCB of Russia sent a diffusion to the NCB of Thailand via the Interpol system in order to detain the activist and organize the extradition procedure. For this reason, our client was put on the international wanted list. The arrest lasted for several weeks, after which the Ukrainian diplomatic services managed to ensure that Mikhail was released and sent to his homeland – Kyiv.
The Commission’s Decision
Our lawyers decided to send an urgent request to the Commission for the Control of Interpol’s Files (CCF) in order to consider all the details of this case. We managed to establish and confirm the fact that Article 3 of the Interpol Constitution was violated. After all, further processing of information regarding our client could have a negative impact on the political neutrality of the organization, which is strictly prescribed in the Charter.
These conclusions were made based on the following facts: when Mikhail was put on the international wanted list, the Ukrainian government stood up to protect his rights, freedoms and interests. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine wrote a post on this topic in his own official Twitter account, expressing support for the activist.
