Head of the security forces of the UAE, Ahmed Nasser al-Raisi was elected president of Interpol on Thursday, during a General Assembly held in Istanbul.
The Secretary-General Jürgen Stock, who oversees the day-to-day running of Interpol, was appointed for a second five-year term in 2019. However, the Emirati general’s election is mainly encouraged by his country being the second-largest contributor to Interpol’s budget in recent years.
The UAE has donated £50 million to Interpol in 2017, almost equivalent to the contributions of the 195 member countries of the organization.
Human rights NGOs and European elected officials are strongly opposed to that, targeting him by several complaints about torture in France and Turkey.
In October 2020, 19 NGOs, including Human Rights Watch (HRW) have filed several complaints about torture against Ahmad Al-Raisi in France, where the organization is based, and in Turkey, the host country of the General Assembly.
In Mid-November, Human rights NGOs and European elected officials wrote to the President of the European Commission Ursula Von der Leyen, three MEPs including Marie Arena as well as to the current president of the European Parliament’s Human Rights Sub-Committee, saying “We are deeply convinced that the election of General Al-Raisi would damage the mission and reputation of Interpol and will seriously affect the ability of the organization to carry out its mission effectively.”
Indeed, the election of an Emirati is contested by Turkey. They wanted someone closer to them that would not reject their requests to arrest gullenists and Kurds. Another very democratic country, Qatar, has also been actively campaigning against Al Raisi due to the rift between GCC countries.
The problem is that the countries with enough money to finance Interpol have all some human rights issues, including China, Russia, the United States, UK, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, etc. The other problem is that representatives of not so rich countries are likely to be influenced by bigger players.
Even Human Rights Watch has a bad reputation as it has advocated for terrorists, hate preachers and their family members more often than for ordinary people, peasants, women and children.