Interpol may reject Pak request to arrest Altaf

LAHORE: Although Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan-led interior ministry has approved issuance of red warrants for Muttahida Qaumi Movement founder Altaf Hussain, there is no guarantee that the 93-year old International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) will accept or act on the request of the Pakistani government, as it had done in May 2013 and again in July 2013 when the Russian interior ministry had approached it to apprehend President Vladimir Putin’s fierce critic, William Felix Browder.

Research conducted by the “Jang Group and Geo Television Network” shows that after the Russian interior ministry had requested Interpol to put an American businessman, William Browder, on its search list and locate and arrest him, the world's largest international police organisation had asserted that Russia's case against the anti-government businessman was "predominantly political” and hence contrary to its rules and regulations.

The Chicago-born Browder, who had exposed management corruption and corporate malfeasance in various state-owned Russian companies like the gas giant Gazprom was subsequently tried and convicted in July 2013 by a Moscow court for tax evasion in absentia. He was sentenced to nine years in jail.

He was one of the biggest foreign investors in Russia at one time and had found himself on the front page of The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times, while he was managing over a billion dollars at the age of 33.

The 52-year old Browder, the Chief Executive of Messrs Hermitage Capital Management, a firm established in 1996 for the purpose of investing initial seed capital of $25 million in Russia. At one time, this firm was one of the best performing stock market funds in the world.

Bill Browder is the grandson of an American, Earl Browder, the general secretary of the American Communist Party from 1932-45. His father, Felix, was born in Moscow and later became chairman of the mathematics department at the University of Chicago.

While his mother was an Austrian, his grandmother was a Russian-Jewish hailing from St. Petersburg (Russia).

In 1998, Browder, who married two Russian women, gave up his American citizenship and became a British citizen.

This was the year when Browder’s fund had lost more than $900 million, following 75 per cent devaluation in Russian currency Rouble.

In late November 2005, he was turned away at customs in Moscow while returning from a weekend in London. He was declared a threat to national security.

The Economist had stated: “The Russian government blacklisted Browder because he interfered with the flow of money to corrupt bureaucrats and their businessmen accomplices. Browder had been a supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin before though.”

About 18 months later, 25 police officers had raided the small office he had kept in Moscow and seized company documents that were ultimately used to commit a $230 million (£153 million) tax rebate fraud.

In November 2008, one of Hermitage Capital Management company’s lawyers, Magnitsky, was arrested. He was charged with the very tax evasion that he had uncovered.

Lawyer Magnitsky died in November 2009, after 11 months in pretrial detention. He was devastated by his lawyer’s death and lobbied hard in Washington DC against Russian officials.

On December 10, 2013, the BBC had stated: “Browder pushed people in Washington to support a bill, the Magnitsky Act, which was signed into law in December 2012. It featured a list of 18 individuals, including three from Russia's interior ministry. Magnitsky's list, as it is known, includes people "who signed the documents", claimed Browder, that led to the lawyer's imprisonment and death. According to the Act, the US government will deny visas to these individuals, if they request one, as well as freeze assets in the US.”

(Further References: Interpol Lyon Office Press release of July 26, 201, the January 31, 2015edition of the Boston Globe, the January 31, 2015 edition of the Economist, the February 1, 2015edition of the New York Times, the Telegraph, the Wall Street Journal and William Browder’s book “Red Notice: A true story of high finance, murder, and one man's fight for justice” etc)

Interpol budget and staff:

With head office in Lyon (France) and having an annual budget of around 78 million Euros, most of which is provided through annual contributions by its membership of 190 countries, Interpol employs a staff of 756, representing 100 member nations.

What is a Red Notice?

According to the United States Attorney’s Manual and the United States Department of Justice, Interpol issues a series of colour-coded notices, including the famous Red Notice for wanted international fugitives and is deemed to be the closest instrument to an international arrest warrant in use today.

Apart from the Red, the other most well-known Interpol notices are Blue, Green, Yellow, Black, Orange, and Purple.

The most well-known notice is the Red Notice which is the "closest instrument to an international arrest warrant in use today."

The Interpol notices are international alerts circulated by the Interpol to communicate information about crimes, criminals, and threats from police in a member state (or an authorised international entity) to their counterparts around the world.