Advocate
Dmytro Konovalenko
Service:
Removing the Red Notice
The applicant in this case was a citizen of both Russia and Ukraine, who, between 2007 and 2014, was a member of a nationalist organization called “Restruct.” Our client participated in various protests and organized rallies expressing condemnation and disagreement with the actions of the Russian government in Crimea.
Service Details
As a result, on November 19, 2020, a criminal case was opened against the client under the charge of “Using violence against a representative of the authorities.” Before this, however, the client had been detained in Indonesia (Jakarta) due to an Interpol diffusion. After several days, the client was released from custody.
Our client’s main request was the removal of the Interpol Red Notice (Red Card). To achieve this promptly, three strong arguments were formulated:
- The criminal case is of an exclusively political nature, which contradicts Interpol’s internal rules (political persecution of individuals).
- Indonesian authorities refused to extradite the client.
- In the proceedings against the client, all human rights and freedoms guaranteed by international law were ignored.
The Interpol lawyer carefully studied all the details and circumstances of the case, reviewing the provided information and documents. In particular, the lawyer examined the specifics of the client’s detention in Indonesia based on a diffusion issued by Russia, as well as analyzed the grounds for the arrest and potential extradition.
As a result, the Ukrainian embassy in Indonesia expressed support for our client. When the Interpol Red Notice was issued, on November 28, 2020, Dmytro Kuleba (Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs) also voiced his support for our client and wrote his own post on Twitter, stating that Ukraine had brought its citizen back from Indonesia, protecting them from political persecution by Russia.
Although official confirmations from Ukraine’s National Central Bureau (NCB) were not submitted to the Interpol Commission for the Control of Files (CCF), the Twitter platform was thoroughly examined for the presence of such a post by the Minister. Thus, the Commission established that the tweet had indeed been sent by Dmytro Kuleba, verified by the presence of a confirmed official account. The information in the post specifically concerned our client, who was the applicant before the Commission.
Commission’s Decision
Thanks to all the facts we collected, we succeeded in challenging the Interpol Red Notice issued against our client. Among other things, our Interpol lawyers argued that a decision unfavorable to our client could lead to negative consequences and tarnish the reputation of the international organization (Interpol), which would be perceived as failing to maintain the necessary neutrality in a case with clear political context and motives of criminal prosecution. Such actions by Interpol would contradict Article 2 of Interpol’s Constitution, which requires the organization to remain neutral, as well as Article 3, which obliges Interpol to conduct its activities with respect for fundamental human rights.
Based on these arguments put forth by our Interpol lawyer, the Commission decided to immediately stop assisting Russia in the search for our client and to remove all information about him from Interpol’s database.
