Interpol refuses Malaysian request for Red Notice

Victory for civil society as Interpol refuses Malaysian request for Red Notice against Clare Brown

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear friends,

We have just learned that Interpol confirms having recevied a Red Notice request from Malaysian authorities to arrest Sarawak Report editor and rainfroest campaigner Clare Rewcastle Brown. The Malaysian Home Minister had issued an arrest warrant against Clare for "activites detrimental to parliamentary democracy." Her "crime" had consisted in disclosing Prime Minister Najib Razak's personal involvement in a multi-billion dollar corruption scandal surrounding the Malaysian state fund 1MDB.

In a letter to Fair Trials, a British NGO, Interpol's Secretary General, Jürgen Stock, wrote on 27 August 2015:

"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 Brown from Malaysian authorities.

In line with our standard operating procedure a review was conducted and on 9 August the request for Red Notice was refused. All 190 member countries were informd 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."

The Bruno Masner Fund welcomes INTERPOL's decision and calls on the Malaysian authorities to retract the arrest warrant issued againt Clare Rewcastle Brown.

During the last weeks, more than 60,000 signatories signed a petition launched by German rainforest conservation group, Rainforest Rescue, which urges the Malaysian King and Prime Minister to retract the arrest warrant.

To sign on, please go to: https://www.rainforest-rescue.org/petitions/1015/stop-malaysia-s-crackdown-on-courageous-environmental-activist?t=513

Your BMF team

Source used for this release:
http://www.sarawakreport.org/2015/08/refused-interpol-rejects-najibs-red-notice-request-against-sarawak-report/

ENDS

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