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INTERPOL REJECTS MALAYSIAN COPS' RED NOTICE BID ON CLARE
REPORTED BY MALAYSIAKINI
Interpol has rejected Malaysian police’s request to issue a red notice against Sarawak Report editor-in-chief Clare Rewcastle Brown.
A red notice is akin to an international arrest warrant where member states are informed about an individual wanted for extradition. In a letter to UK-based NGO Fair Trials International, Interpol secretary-general Jurgen Stock confirmed that the his organisation had rejected Malaysia’s request.
“Whilst Interpol does not usually comment on specific cases or individuals, in light of the significant press interest in this case we can confirm that Interpol’s general secretariat did receive a red notice request for Clare Rewcastle Brown from Malaysian authorities.
“In line with our standard operating procedure, a review was conducted and, on Aug 9, the request for the red notice was refused,” said Stock.
Stock added that Interpol had also asked all of its member states not to use the organisation’s channels with regard to Rewcastle Brown’s case.
“All 190 member countries were informed of the decision and advised not to use Interpol’s channels in this matter and also requested to remove any data from their national databases,” he said.
The letter dated August 27 and addressed to Fair Trials International’s executive director Jago Russel, was in response to his query dated August 25.
Rewcastle Brown, an investigative journalist based in the UK, had doggedly covered alleged misappropriation of Malaysian state-owned 1MDB and multi-billion ringgit deposits into Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s accounts.
On Aug 4, Malaysian police issued an arrest warrant against Rewcastle Brown on grounds of ‘activities detrimental to democracy’ and ‘publishing false information’.('Interpol rejects M'sian cops' red notice bid on Clare.' - MalaysiaKini, August 28, 2015)
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RELATED: INTERPOL ASKED TO CLARIFY POSITION ON CLARE REWCASTLE BROWN
REPORTED BY FAIRTRIALS.ORG
August 25, 2015–Update: Fair Trials has received confirmation from INTERPOL that the request for a Red Notice against Clare Rewcastle Brown has been refused. Fair Trials welcomes the news that Ms Rewcastle Brown is not the victim of a Red Notice, but the case shows that some countries continue to see INTERPOL as a tool to try and target critics.
Fair Trials has asked INTERPOL to clarify its position regarding the case of Clare Rewcastle Brown following the publication of an arrest warrant in Malaysia, where she works as a journalist.
Ms Rewcastle Brown is a British journalist whose publication Sarawak Report alleged the diversion of some USD 700m into the personal accounts of the Prime minister of Malaysia. News reports indicate that Ms Rewcastle Brown, who was recently given police protection in the UK after being photographed and followed in London, is subject to an arrest warrant in Malaysia for alleged ‘activity detrimental to parliamentary democracy’. The whistle-blowing website Sarawak Report, through which she published the report, has been blocked within Malaysia.
Press reports indicate that Malaysian authorities have made a request for a Red Notice against Ms Rewcastle Brown through INTERPOL’s systems. One article states that “Federal police are confident of [INTERPOL]’s cooperation following discussions between Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar and [INTERPOL] Secretary-General Jürgen Stock during the ASEAN police chiefs meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia this week”.
In an interview with The Independent, Rewcastle Brown describes the warrant as “ridiculous” and said the tactic was designed to frighten her sources. “It’s not something they could execute against me. They have charged me under laws that don’t exist in the UK or any other normal democratic country,” she said. “What they have said is that I have printed material that has caused concern in the minds of the public and that is a crime, apparently.”
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[RELATED: CURRENT / THE JUSTO CONFESSION ON THE STRAITS TIMES OF SINGAPORE - "{Ms Rewcastle-Brown had agreed to receive the US$2 million from the buyer and send {me} US$250,000 a month for consultancy services.} I don't know if she received the money or not, (because) I was arrested...I have no idea." - Xavier Andre Justo - The Straits Times, July 24, 2015]
[RELATED: CURRENT / JUSTO AND THE EDGE MEDIA GROUP – "Yes, we misled [Justo]. But that was the only way to get hold of the evidence to expose how a small group of Malaysians and foreigners cheated the people of Malaysia of US$1.83 billion (S$2.5 billion)." - Datuk Tong Kooi Ong and Ho Kay Tat - The Straits Times, July 24, 2015]
[RELATED: FOCUS / CLARE REWCASTLE BROWN'S IGNORANCE OF HER OWN COUNTRY'S LEGAL CODES -"11– Obtaining services dishonestly. (2) A person obtains services in breach of this subsection if– (a) they are made available on the basis that the payment has been, is being, or will be made for or in respect of them, (b) he obtains them without any payment having been made for or in respect of them or without payment having been made in full, and (c) when he obtains them, he knows– (i) that they are being made available on the basis described in paragraph (a), or (ii) that they might be, but intends that payment will not be made, or will not be made in full." - UK FRAUD ACT 2006, August 16, 2015]
[RELATED: BREAKING / BUSINESSMAN AT CENTER OF MAJOR MALAYSIAN CORRUPTION SCANDAL IS JAILED IN THAILAND – “I did pursue [Justo] doggedly to get the material. In the end he surrendered it for free." - Clare Rewcastle Brown - The Telegraph, August 17, 2015]
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[RELATED: BREAKING / SWISS NATIONAL GIVEN 3-YEAR JAIL TERM FOR 1MDB-LINKED BLACKMAIL – "A report published last month in Singaporean daily the Straits Times claimed that Justo had affirmed that the businessman and Clare Rewcastle-Brown, the editor of the Sarawak report, wanted to use the data to “bring down the Malaysian government.” He also said that his interlocutors had evoked the possibility of “modifying the documents”, which Rewcastle-Brown has denied. The country’s anti-corruption agency later said the $700 million was donations, effectively clearing Razak of wrongdoing." – FultonCounty.COM, August 17, 2015][RELATED: FOCUS / CLARE REWCASTLE BROWN'S IGNORANCE OF HER OWN COUNTRY'S LEGAL CODES - "2– Fraud by false representation; (2) A representation is false if— (b) the person making it knows that it is, or might be, untrue or misleading." - UK FRAUD ACT 2006, August 16, 2015]
[RELATED: CURRENT / CLARE AND CULLEN–THE DO-SI-DO – "Therefore, it was only after strikingly similar financial information [from Cullen Johnson] was submitted in a court hearing related to Abu Bekir’s divorce and then printed in all the Malaysian media, that we too subsequently quoted what the Malaysian media reported had been said in court." - Clare Rewcastle Brown - Sarawak Report, January 10, 2015]
[RELATED: CURRENT / THE JUSTO CONFESSION ON THE STRAITS TIMES OF SINGAPORE – “Bunkum. What I have presented on 1MDB and has been clarified by The Edge and corroborated by several other official sources is a coherent explanation of events, versus the dodging, changing stories of 1MDB. - Clare Rewcastle Brown - The Straits Times, July 24, 2015]
[CURRENT / CLARE REWCASTLE BROWN'S INTERVIEW ON CHANNEL NEWSASIA REGARDING THE WARRANT FOR HER ARREST – "The Prime Minister has now finally had it announced through the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission that that was not anything to do with 1MDB money, which actually certainly I and I don’t know of any investigative reporters who said it was." - Clare Rewcastle Brown - Channel NewsAsia, August 5, 2015]
[RELATED: 'SENSATIONAL FINDINGS! PRIME MINISTER NAJIB RAZAK’S PERSONAL ACCOUNTS LINKED TO 1MDB MONEY TRAIL - MALAYSIA EXCLUSIVE' - Sarawak Report, July 2, 2015]
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Since 2013, Fair Trials has led a campaign for the reform of INTERPOL, to prevent countries using its global ‘wanted person’ alerts to export the persecution of exiled human rights defenders, journalists and peaceful political activists. This is something we’ve seen from countries across the world, including Azerbaijan, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Venezuela, who have all succeeded in using INTERPOL in this way.
INTERPOL are beginning to listen, and earlier this year announced a new asylum policy, as well as launching the Working Group on the Processing of Information. The Working Group has been tasked by INTERPOL’s General Assembly with reviewing the organisation’s supervisory mechanisms in the area of data processing.
Since we published our major report, ‘Strengthening respect for human rights; strengthening INTERPOL’ in 2013, others are noticing, taking up the baton and looking at exactly how INTERPOL operates themselves. There remains work to be done, however, and Fair Trials is continuing to highlight what further changes are needed, and have made it a priority to highlight shocking cases of injustice all over the world.The Letter to INTERPOL can be found here
('INTERPOL asked to clarify position on Clare Rewcastle Brown.' - FairTrials.ORG, August 25, 2015)
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The NINE QUESTIONS Blog calls for a fair trial for Ms Clare Rewcastle Brown
under British Law and will return with more facts.
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The NINE QUESTIONS Blog calls for a fair trial for Ms Clare Rewcastle Brown
under British Law and will return with more facts.
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