Interpol issues red notice on Tarique
The UK law enforcers could arrest and deport BNP Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman, if they choose to, since the Interpol has recently issued a red notice regarding Tarique.
“The individuals concerned are wanted by national jurisdictions [or International Criminal Tribunals, where appropriate] and Interpol's role is to assist national police forces in identifying or locating those individuals with a view to their arrest and extradition,” Interpol press office said in response to The Daily Star query about the notice.
It is not an international arrest warrant, the press office said via email.
An Interpol red notice is the closest instrument it has to an international arrest warrant.
Interpol's jurisdiction and mode of operation became a talk of the country after yesterday's news reports on the notice, which was issued in connection with Tarique's alleged involvement in the August 21, 2004, grenade attack on an Awami League rally that left 24 people dead.
“He is under the charge of murder and explosion of hand grenade in the Awami League meeting,” read the charges posted on the Interpol website.
Tarique, elder son of BNP chief and former prime minister Khaleda Zia, has been living in London since he left Bangladesh in 2008 during the caretaker government rule. The UK is one of the 190 member states of Interpol.
Red notices are issued if the National Central Bureau (NCB), the office of Interpol in its member state, provides all the information required to the Interpol General Secretariat in Lyon of France. And only if the NCB request conforms to the Interpol rules and regulations, the notice gets issued.
The General Secretariat does not send officers to arrest individuals. Law enforcers of the member countries find and arrest the individual.
“Many of Interpol's member countries, however, consider a red notice as a valid request for provisional arrest, especially if they are linked to the requesting country via a bilateral extradition treaty,” the Interpol press office told The Daily Star via email.
Home ministry officials said a request to find and arrest Tarique was sent to Interpol General Secretariat about three months ago but the notice was issued recently.
“Interpol has nothing to do with the arrest or hand over of a fugitive. It is entirely the matter of a member country and its legal framework,” Assistant Inspector General of Police Mahbubur Rahman Bhuiyan, in-charge of the Interpol desk at police headquarters, told The Daily Star.
He said the matter of extradition of a fugitive also involves whether the countries concerned have extradition treaty or not.
Former inspector general of police Nurul Huda said Interpol, responding to a request of a member country, could issue a red notice to find a person who has been accused in a charge sheet.
The National Central Bureau, the Interpol's country office in Bangladesh, had sent the request for the red notice with all the required information after the Criminal Investigation Department, which is investigating the grenade attack case, urged the NCB to do so.
The legal body of the Lyon-based international police organisation decides on issuing red notices based on the information provided on the fugitive.
Meanwhile, the BNP termed the issuance of the notice a “negative strategy and a confusing campaign”.
Such “smear campaign” by the Interpol was also the “dramatic manifestation” of the recent statements of the government's ministers, BNP International Affairs Secretary Asaduzzaman Ripon said while conveying the party's opinion on the issue at a press conference at the BNP central office in Nayapaltan yesterday.
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