A new complaint for “
torture
” and “
acts of barbarism
” was filed Tuesday in Paris at the crimes against humanity pole of the anti-terrorist prosecution (Pnat) against the Emirati Ahmed Nasser Al-Raisi, new president of Interpol who would be currently in France, AFP learned from a source familiar with the matter.
Read alsoInterpol: why the Emirati candidacy worries
Ahmed Nasser Al-Raisi, elected at the end of November at the head of the international organization for police cooperation, had already been the subject of two complaints but these had been closed by the Pnat for lack of competence: the person concerned did not reside in France and was not on French soil either. One of these two complaints was filed on June 7 by the NGO Gulf Center for Human Rights (GCHR). It presented the opponent Ahmed Mansoor as detained in Abu Dhabi "
in medieval conditions constituting acts of torture
". It is this organization which again filed a simple complaint on Tuesday, consulted by AFP, against Ahmed Nasser Al-Raisi.
Tweets from the latter in support, the NGO explains that he “
is on French soil
” currently, in Lyon where the headquarters of Interpol is located, which would be enough to make French justice competent.
The NGO immediately excludes his possible immunity linked to his function because the Emirati general would still also exercise police functions in Abu Dhabi where Ahmed Mansoor would still be detained in conditions still constituting “
torture
”, according to the complainants.
Ground for exception to diplomatic immunity
Ahmed Nasser Al-Raisi is therefore, according to the complainant NGO, one of the current perpetrators of this torture, a reason for an exception to the diplomatic immunity he enjoys under the 2008 agreement governing relations between France and Interpol, organization whose headquarters it hosts. “
To have him arrested immediately is an imperative obligation of France under the terms of the international conventions that it has signed
”, declares Me William Bourdon, lawyer for the NGO. The other complaint was filed in early October by Rodney Dixon, the lawyer for two British plaintiffs, Matthew Hedges and Ali Issa Ahmad, who reported in October in Lyon facts of arbitrary detention or torture in 2018 and 2019.
The election of Al-Raisi, in Istanbul on November 25, was made to the chagrin of human rights defenders and politicians who felt that it undermined the mission of the organization.
The function of president is essentially ceremonial, the real boss of the organization being its general secretary.
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